VLVL2 (3) A Finesi Romance #1

[Paul Nightingale]

> 
> > The flashback runs three pages (22-25) and offers Hector, in Ricardo
> > Montalban mode, trying to write, ie produce, a narrative that
features
> > Zoyd as snitch.
> 
> I don't think this is correct. For example, the new paragraph
(starting at
> 24.12) contains information provided by a detached narrator.

As you can see, above, I wrote that the passage features Hector etc. I
didn't write that it necessarily features his pov exclusively. However,
his pov is dominant, from the idealised self-image (the Ricardo
Montalban "impersonation" - cf "Eastwood-style mouth-muscle nuance" on
28) to its frustration when the text describes Zoyd's dealings (which
Hector clearly knows about) and Hector's response to those dealings.
However you read it, you can't deny that a significant shift has taken
place in Hector's demeanour from his first appearance (top of 23) to his
frustrated rage (bottom of 24). This shift informs the reader as to the
importance of Zoyd's resistance, his refusal to participate in Hector's
'game'. Which is the point of the flashback.

> It provides
> details which -- explicitly -- Hector does not know about (the "sweet
> basil"
> and "Bisquick" deals which Zoyd *doesn't* tell Hector about).

Whatever Zoyd does and doesn't say, explicitly, Hector does know that
Zoyd has been "fooled". How else do you explain: "They just gonna fuck
you over again"? Where is the evidence that Hector doesn't know about
the "sweet basil" and the "Bisquick"? He knows Zoyd has been ripped off;
how can you be so confident that he doesn't know the details? He does
appear to have a few people working for him in his "personal snitch
Safeway".

> And unless
> Ricardo Montalban was renowned for idiomatic Irish characterisations
("to
> be
> sure" 24.20), I don't see how you can read it as Hector fabulating.

I'm not aware that "to be sure" is, specifically, idiomatic Irish, but I
guess I'm prepared to withstand enlightenment here. It doesn't really
matter: whatever your point is, it fails to get off the ground.

> 
> Nice try though.
> 

Gee, thanks. We fumbling amateurs need all the encouragement we can get.