IVIV: Trust

[Tore Rye Andersen]

I dug up a few more relevant trust-related quotes, in addition to 
the ones I mentioned in my previous post. I'm not sure that they
make matters any clearer, but they do underscore that trust is an
important theme in IV.
 
So for the record: When one of the bad eggs from LAPD approach 
Adrian Prussia to get him to kill one of their own, Prussia at first 
balks at the request. Why a cop? Wasn't he only supposed to kill 
"black and Chicano activists, antiwar protesters, campus bombers, 
and other pinko fucks"? (323). But the contact explains:
 
"On the job [...] there's a code. There has to be trust. Everything
depends on it, it's nonnegotiable." (324)
 
Seems the villains in IV are the novel's staunchest defenders of
trust (maybe because they can afford to be screwed over, having
the option to kill those who screw them). But that doesn't mean
Doc is willing to discard trust altogether. We hear that the "bond
between partners was nearly the only thing Doc had ever found to 
admire about the LAPD" (66). This bond is of course primarily built
on trust: 
 
"here was at least something they had not sold but kept for themselves, 
forged in the dangerous life-and-death uncertainties of one working
day after another - something real that had to be respected." (66)
 
Life on the beach is a different story:
 
"Everybody around here drove around like a dedicated loser, expecting
moment to moment to get into an accident. Doc could relate to this -
it was like the beach, where you lived in a climate of unquestioning
hippie belief, pretending to trust everybody while always expecting
to be sold out - but he didn't have to enjoy that either, especially." 
(225)
 
Paranoia has clearly crept in with the L.A. fog.
 
So what's a poor Doc to do: surrender himself to the mean suspicion and
paranoia characterizing life on he beach around 1970? Or listen to crooks
like Crocker Fenway espousing the virtues of absolute trust? Or something
in between?
 
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