VL-IV p29

[Michael Bailey]

jbor also wrote as part of a very nice precis of the luncheon
(and if you're there rob, apologies for the appropriation)

>Then comes the main subject of conversation; first, Hector's information
>that Frenesi was scheduled to be taken off the Witness Protection Program
>(26-7). A link is made between the snitch culture, of which both Frenesi and
>Zoyd were a part, and the Mafia (linking in also with the Wayvone wedding
>gig Zoyd sets up Isaiah with at the end of the previous chapter.) The
>question begged here is whether there are any real distinctions between the
>way the Mafia operates and the way Zoyd and his cronies operated.

to which I'd only add "and the way Hector and Vond operated", and
maybe go on to say this "way of the world" is the everpresent
background against which we try to create small, homeopathic doses of
truth and beauty, of which there are many in VL, a-and draw lines that
may only be meaningful to us, and set standards that we can't live up
to but profit from trying.

I need a couple glasses of that Chilean vintage maybe to expand on this...