SLSL Get Back

[jbor]

on 4/12/02 1:22 AM, Dave Meury at dmeury at lioninc.com wrote:

>>> "Sometimes I almost wish I was back at City. And that's bad."
>>> 
>>> "Why bad?" Picnic said. "I'd rather be back at the Academy any day than
>>> doing this crap."
>>> 
>>> "No," Levine said frowning, "you don't go back. I only went back once
>>> that I can remember and that was to a broad. And that was bad too."
>>> 
>>> "Yeah," Picnic said. "You told me. You should have gone back. I wish I
>>> could. Back to the barracks, even, and go to sleep."
>>> 
>>> "You can sleep anywhere," Levine said. "I can."
>>> 
>>> Page 35 SL/TSR
>>> 
>>> "William Zantzinger":
>>> Does this make sense to anyone?
>>> 
>>> Why does Picnic say, "You should have gone back"?
>> 
>> JBOR:
>> I might be missing something totally obvious, but the only way I can
>> make sense of it is as a typo for "You shouldn't have gone back."
> 
> * * * 
> 
> Unless he's saying, "You should have gone back *anyway*."  Picnic yearns
> to physically escape from his current circumstances while Levine says in
> effect, "You can escape in a private, internalized way no matter where
> you are."  
> 

Yes, I think that's where the conversation ends up. And I can sort of get it
as Picnic disagreeing with Levine about the time he "went back ... to a
broad" - Picnic saying something like "No, you *should* have gone back" that
time, or again, or for good, or along those lines. It's to do with the theme
of "identity of place", of what it actually means to "go back", of whether
or not it's ever really possible to do this, of where this "back" is
actually located. It crops up again in Levine's "Wandering Jew" vision and
then right at the end of the story.

best