ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[Chris Broderick]

I'd say that a good part of the book is focused on
Webb, and his family's various reactions to his
murder.  It's not merely a question of temperment. 
His death affects many of the actions that his
children take, for better and worse.  I'm not trying
to reduce the book to some kind of a revenge tragedy,
but it certainly has that lineage.

Webb's death is certainly different than Slothrop's
disappearance from the narrative of GR.  It's a much
more literal act of disintegration than Slothrop's
becoming a crossroads.  Slothrop might well have
enacted a sort of escape from the curse of Infant
Tyrone, but Webb hasn't escaped anything.

-Chris

--- Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:

> 
> > One other thing that AtD shares with VL is the
> focus
> > on a character who is, for much of the book,
> absent... 
> 
> > Similar to Slothrop, Webb becomes indistinct 
> > and quite literally fragmented, and the majority
> of the 
> > reader's interaction with him as a character is
> through other 
> > people.  
> 
> As Webb is dead by p. 198 of 1085 pp, isn't it a
> stretch to say the book is
> focused on him -- seances nothwithstanding?
> 
> While I'd certainly agree that his temperament
> *refracts* four ways into
> those of his children, that's true of countless
> family narratives. I don't
> see much similarity to Slothrop's fragmentation.   
> 
> 



 
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