Vineland Wiki

[Michael Bailey]

oops, not an auspicious day for Sea World after all...

however, about the priest/congregation thing, see...

this isn't the entire charm of the book for me, but

what a lot of people think about the unions is "that was a good idea,
but it got spoiled because..."
(various things)
Even Dylan, in Sundown on the Unions "sure was a good idea, till greed
got in the way"
Whose greed, though?  I can't demand a full exegesis from a song, of course...

anyway, the IWW had among its founding members a priest, Thoms
Hagerty.  I find his career interesting in that he was inspired by
Marxism and Catholicism, sort of like the Liberation Theology movement
later on...and in fact was suspended (though, according to Wikipedia,
not defrocked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Haggerty ) just
as Liberation Theology was discredited energetically through the
offices of Ratzinger (currently Pope Benedict XVI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI

I know, I know, who gives a flip about all this Catholic stuff?
(though echshually, ecclesiastical history is rather fascinating) --
yet I find myself wondering if Catholic values do not imbue OBA'a
work...nah, let me revise that to, his vision of goodness may be (for
whatever reason) largely not incompatible with them...

so anyway, Rerum Novarum posits a new element in the social ontology.
While defending the existing institutions viz. family, church,
business, government, nonetheless he slips in a new element = unions
although the slot he fits them into is that formerly occupied by
guilds.

So he signals his willingness to "bless off" (as they say in
corporate-land) on the labor struggle.  The reason he does so is that
he sees that unions can be of help to the bodies and souls of those
who work. And the Church, which presumably loves people, thinks that
is a Good Thing.

Now I ask you, is Zoyd's attraction to Frenesi not terribly dissimilar
to the love of the Church for the participants in the struggles for
labor and social justice? In offering her refuge, and binding himself
to her by public declaration (marriage, Rerum Novarum) and in keeping
a torch burning for her and feeling great sadness about her absence -
and in seeing her taken away by the forces of reaction (in accordance
with law, which she has in fact broken) - is it not moving that he
still loves her but doesn't share her willingness to break civil law
or her ambition to overthrow institutions thru violence?

Even his vices are similar to those seen in the Church:
the Good - well I think it's a good vice, the use of psychedelic
sacraments...obvious parallel to Church
the Bad - a certain, well, extra-laid-backness, a falling-away from
his true calling as musician...
                                 (not so obvious, but the Church
doesn't always manifest the true grooviness
                                                 of the Gospel (sez
Mike who himself fails similarly to leverage his talents/gifts))
the Ugly - again obvious, the craving for young flesh...

anyway, as the Doc says at the end of _Portnoy's Complaint_ - "perhaps
we can now begin"



>> Thanks again, and as always, Tim ...
>>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> "...the one about the postmodern gangster who makes you an offer you
> can't understand..." - Charles Stross
>



-- 
--
"...the one about the postmodern gangster who makes you an offer you
can't understand..." - Charles Stross