ATDTDA (9): Learning curve, 267-269

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

>
>  He makes himself at home ("See some more that coffee"); takes Deuce
> away; and then joins the marriage as an equal partner. 

cf Pig Bodine and Dennis Flange...some similarities there, among the men, 
though Lake is radically different from Mrs Flange

different notion: it's actually pretty radical that Deuce would marry
Lake.  Lake is - and we're - going to get to meet his family; we've
gotten that good fluorescent analogy on the violence of his character;
if he were only a badman, he and Sloat would have a few weeks or months
of vida loca on the proceeds from Webb's murder (which should have
been a fairly rich score, as these things go) and move on to the next 
exploit - for him to go in a church in front of God and everybody
either proves that Lake's strategy (withholding sex until marriage,
as many a parent has advised) really works, or that there are
valence shells in his makeup which have remained hidden: I keep
thinking of Webb's offer to introduce them - and how that kindness,
however misguided on Webb's part, may be what's caused the emission,
later, of his "I do"

>
> It might seem the logical next step to exclude the mediator: "Why don't you
> boys just leave me out of it and do each other for a change?" 

In Vineland, I recoiled at Frenesi's thought of Weed and Vond 
interacting through her: not that Vond the fascist pig 
wouldn't think that way - 
but good old woolly-minded Weed the math professor, drafted into
a student rebellion simply because of his height, into some kind of
homoerotic Vond-bond? 
- I don't think he'd relegate Frenesi to a place-marker that way; 
her thinking that is just a symptom of how
Vond has twisted her mind and emotions...and admittedly, of Weed's
disconnect from interpersonal closeness - what with his math, his dental appointments (actually programming sessions), his multiple spouses 
and many kids, and his PR3 captaincy, I don't think he assigns
that much emotional weight to either Frenesi or Vond...it's hard
to tell because the only time we really see from Weed's POV is
during the dental appointments...

But Sloat and Deuce are that close, having shared a murder,
saved each other's lives in fights, and rooming together.
And as Willy Nelson has advised, "cowboys are frequently
secretly fond of each other"