VLVL(12) pgs 226-238

[Michael Bailey]

a) van Meter is Zoyd's friend, later to be shown as semblable, frere...

b) his journey across into Thanatoid territory echoes or is similar to
Vato & Blood's...

c)  (it's also allusive to the river of Lethe, of course, and
"crossing that bridge when you come to it",

d)  ... and the mention of the WPA bridge, as earlier of the WPA
murals in the courthouse where Frenesi's peeps are facing legal
jeopardy, is like the fleeting mention in V. of the Shantytown where
Benny Profane was born, one of those kinda whooshes as the big eagle
flies by...

e) "the WPA bridge somehow had at least one lane always open" - a
whiff  of a different sort of government that isn't into punishing and
all that conquest shit, but instead uses its common-wealth to assist
people and build things they use... where the worlds are in harmony
and those who've retreated into one type or another of Thanatoid
status are reachable...

f) it occurs to me that by having this big blurb about parrots and
lucid dreaming, one of the things that might occur to one is that van
Meter is actually dreaming his gig at the Thanatoid Roast and could
easily be asleep in front of the TV.  but as legit as those of the
kids, his adventure should not be considered any less real for being a
dream.

>
> *** Page 227 -  "... Weed, beached these years beside the Sea of Death,..."
> What is this?   I don't understand what this is alluding to -

the way it seems to be, just gingerly pollicating at a possible
reading, is the Thanatoids are both those recently dead who haven't
"gone into the light"
(*which would be the sea they are beached beside*) and also those
people living whose consciousness is filled with the injustice of
their plight




--
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ｐ２２９）