VLVL 3 Zoyd and Hector

[jbor]

on 9/8/03 3:11 PM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:

> 
> 1. Hector's got a gun.

Yes, that's true. He shows it (23.35), but I don't think we ever see him use
it, do we? *Zoyd* certainly "liked to believe" Hector has used it (29.31)
but, even so, Zoyd doesn't actually seem to have a problem with that likely
probability at all.

All I can really say is that the value judgements you make below are your
own, and are not supported by the text.

best

> This is a major difference because generally he's ready, willing and able to
kill
> somebody as part of his job. That's his "career" as a cop. Being a cop means
> that you're either a pig or a naive idealist. I know both types. In the
> course of the novel Hectors changes from pig to idealist:
> 
> "Zoyd, the idealist, liked to believe that Hector remembered everybody he'd
> ever shot at, hit, missed, booked, questioned, rousted, double-crossed --
> that each face was filed in his conscience, and the only way he could live
> with such a history was to take these chances with his own bad ass, upping
> the ante as he moved into his late midcareer. This theory at least had kept
> Zoyd from lying around hatching plots to assassinate Hector, as others had
> been known to waste hours of potentially productive lives doing."
> (29.30-30.1)
> 
> So there's no doubt that Hector had shot at people. Zoyd, contrary to this
> (as we are told) never became a snitch, but was part of the idealistic
> (maybe naive) youth movement that believed that the USA as the wealthiest
> nation on Earth has an obligation to make the world a better place.
> 
> 2. Hector's helping to put innocent dopers into jail where they get in
> contact to "real" criminals. This is the way the government helped building
> up the heroin market, helped spreading cocaine and later the crack epidemic.
> 
> "Ev'ry cop's a criminal and all the sinners saints."
>