IVIV BIG DISCUSSION [spoiler] Compare & Contrast section, P. 32

[John Bailey]

Remember as well that Doc's desire to get into the biz was spurred
from his childhood (fictional) heroes. He was following fantasies,
unaware of the ideologies programmed into them. He has since become
more aware of those hidden agendas, obv. And going solo, being more
choosy about gigs, doing them for free sometimes, does suggest a
commendable ethical trajectory.

I don't think P writes characters who are beyond redemption, ever. The
deboning of Brock Vond hints that even his journey is just beginning.

Also: started re-reading AtD last night. As much as I appreciate IV
and am still just discovering it really... my goodness me AtD is a
great work. In a completely different league.

On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 3:26 PM, Michael
Bailey<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> John Bailey wrote:
>> The lines preceding Otto's quote below: "Doc knew these people, he'd
>> seen enough of them in the course of business. They went out to
>> collect cash debts, they broke ribcages, they got people fired, they
>> kept an unforgiving eye on anything that might become a threat."
>>
>> Doc sure knows those people. He used to do one of those things, and
>> wasn't far off some of the others.
>>
>
> well, I reluctantly accede to that.
> If grace in Lew Basknight's sense is seeing things as they are,
> then it would be wrong to bless the collections profession too strenuously.
> I guess...
>
> In _Against the Day_, Lew breaks out of the oppressor mode (just as
> Dashiell Hammett left the Pinkertons in real life) --
> so, does Doc?
>
> if we admit that skip tracer isn't in fact an admirable
> thing to be, can we still believe that while he was doing it, he had
> to have thought
> that it was at least justifiable?
>
> and the fact that he moves laterally rather than rising in that
> profession (although from a "towards goodness" view his move is upward),
> does that help us to a more secure sense of his worthiness
> as a protagonist?
>
> not entirely from my point of view as an extremist pacifist,
> perhaps - all those hours in the shooting gallery could've been
> better spent reading Gandhi or volunteering for Food not Bombs,
> or doing Yoga and chanting OM...
>
> nor from a Marxist point of view - he'd have had to be going to
> party meetings or something, wouldn't he?
>
> but for a person with his sensibilities...and, sure, those are open
> to inspection and debate and dispute...what he does makes pretty good sense,
> emotionally, at least to my (stannous) ear
>