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[Terrance]

Scott Badger wrote:
> 
> Rob:
> > > Blicero is not a "god", but he is revered as something like a
> > "god" by his
> > > disciples. This is what makes him a Badass, like King Ludd, or
> > Dillinger, or
> > > even, as Scott has pointed out, Major Marvy.
> 
> Terrance:
> > Is this what Scott pointed out?
> 
> Mostly what I've been trying to point out is that I'm having a hard time
> getting a good grip on this Badass thing.  Every definition seems to lead to
> some unlikely inclusion.  Even Dillinger...the myth may be compelling, but
> was the *man* responsible for any real "karmic readjustment"...? Or, like
> most of the others in the Whole Badass Crew, is *mythical* a necessary
> qualification?
> 
> Scott



"There is a long folk history of this figure, the Badass. He
is usually male, and while sometimes earning the quizzical
tolerance of women, is almost universally admired by men for
two basic virtues: he Is Bad, and he is Big. Bad meaning not
morally evil, necessarily, more like able to work mischief
on a large scale. What is important here is the amplifying
of scale, the  multiplication of effect." 

Male, admired by men. 

That he, mostly a male and not a female (don't want to get
into this homophobic bull shit again, but I doubt a cross
dressing bi-sexual Sado-masochist is quite what P has in
mind here) is universally admired by men for  being both
Bad, Bad in the sense that he is able to work mischief on a
large scale, tells me that Weissmann/Blicero ain't no
Badass. This sounds a bit more like Pig Bodine, Slothrop in
certain scenes.  

The multiplication of effect, the amplifying of scale,
doesn't fit Weissmann, although it does fit Blicero, but in
my opinion, Blicero is hardly Bad, but is bad, in the sense
of morally evil." 

Controlled Marttial-arts anger
A female badass? 
 

"No doubt what people admired and mythologized him for was
the vigor and single- mindedness of his assault. But the
words "fit of insane rage" are third-hand and at least 68
years after the event. And Ned Lud's anger was not directed
at the machines, not exactly. I like to think of it more as
the controlled, martial-arts type anger of the dedicated
Badass." 

Martial-arts type anger, now didn't P say they were mostly
male and admired by men, think VL guys,  and that P has a
female Badass in VL is no surprize. The Badass is admired,
mythologized for his/her vigor (again, can't be Weissmann
and is not Blicero either, because Blicero is a malignancy
spreading and not a healthy, vigorous, strong life force)
and the single mindedness of his assault. 

Charisma: but Mr. Weber, is it the charisma of Hitler or a
Saint? 


"What gave King Ludd his special Bad charisma, took him from
local hero
to nationwide public enemy, was that he went up against
these amplified, multiplied, more than human opponents and
prevailed. When times are hard, and we feel at the mercy of
forces many times more powerful, don't we, in seeking some
equalizer, turn, if only in imagination, in wish, to the
Badass -- the djinn, the golem, the hulk, the superhero „-
who will resist what otherwise would overwhelm us? Of
course, the real or secular frame-bashing was still being
done by everyday folks, trade unionists ahead of their time,
using the night, and their own solidarity and  discipline,
to achieve their multiplications of effect."

Is this how Blicero comes into being? from a wish?  from the
character's feelings of hopelessness, of being at the mercy
of something so powerful that they wish for or imagine or
mythologize some Badass? Nope. 

Badass in Literature and Dreams: 

"Alfonso, like Frankenstein's creature, is assembled from
pieces - sable-plumed helmet, foot, leg, sword, all of them,
like the hand, quite oversized - which fall from the sky or
just materialize here and there about the castle grounds,
relentless as Freud's slow return of the repressed. The
activating agencies, again like those in Frankenstein, are
non-mechanical. The final assembly of "the form of Alfonso,
dilated to an immense magnitude," is achieved through
supernatural means: a family curse, and the intercession of
Otranto's patron saint."  


Carl Barrington is bit of a Badass.