some 1/2-arced notions on Chums vis a vis Trespassers ATDTDA related

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

1/2 arced because we're only partway into the
narrative arc

1) Trespassers as evangelists...this still happens
but it happened a lot more in the 70s - there was
a whole phalanx of "Jesus Freaks" out in the 
streets and they would corner you and invite you
to some Christian shindig...I ditched one of those
guys by ducking into a pizzeria and out the back
door; spent part of a day with another and had
some stimulating discussion though he ended up
asking me some shibboleth-question ("did Jesus
Christ come in the spirit or the flesh?" I think
it was, and literally yelling "heretic" or the like,
and striding away when my answer didn't please him);
another time a friend actually joined one of those
groups and I tagged along to a number of meetings
and got refreshments and so forth (The Way International,
Dr Victor Weirwille - my friend was mighty offended
when I japed "Dr Werewolf" so I quit kidding about it,
at least in his presence); nowadays you're
more likely to just see a Chick pamphlet and be
confronted with a damnation/salvation choice
(pretty easy choice; the hard part is accepting
the authority of the questioner in any meaningful
sense - except that ultimately we all confront
each other similarly...sort of...if you look at
it that way, and most of the time, like Bartleby,
I prefer not to...) anyway, the stance of the
Trespassers is that they have a certain knowledge,
and they offer eternal life (sort of) - not so
very far from what a "Jesus Freak" used to offer...
the certainty in their eyes and voice...
anyway, if the Chums (especially Miles) rejects
this street corner spiritualism and continue on
their trip, what does it mean?  It's a testing
of the surface tension...

2) To continue in the metaphor of Chums as readers,
then perhaps the Trespassers are simply other available
stories, competing for their attention with sumptuous
promises into a commitment that isn't so different
than their existing commitments to the Chums organization
(or to the reader's of reading and relishing AtD? -
confronted with the possibility of reading Franzen's
"Corrections" for instance (which I am probably 
going to do) one might simply, like 'zo Meatman,
go AWOL for a bit...and some might never return...
though that's not likely for this kid...)