V-2nd - Chapter 11: Those kids

[Michael Bailey]

Laura wrote:

> It reminds me of two other cases:  the historical reports of the murder of Greek mathematician Hypatia.  Her heresies enraged a mob of citizens to set upon her and rip her up, even scraping the flesh from her bones with seashells.
>

wow, that's apposite!

> The other is that scene from Tennessee William's Suddenly Last Summer ( all right, the movie version) where gay Sebastian is ripped apart and cannibalized by an angry mob of indigenous types.
>

once again, nice parallel...

> Who do we sympathize with in these scenes?  Are we meant to think that the victims deserved what they got?  Fausto seems to harbor guilt for not rescuing V. from the mob of kids, but he doesn't seem to blame the kids either.  The message is that when we have progress, we have to expect the mobs to fight it.  Ultimately, they'll lose, so we can't be too hard on them.  Is that it?
>

 this is a climactic scene --
but there's a whole lot of book left.
Stencil, one would think, would be able to pen a final page or doff
his last disguise after investigating this - but I happen to know he
doesn't!

"Death is not the end" (as Bob Dylan sang)

V.'s disassembly sticks in Fausto's mind and like Rilke suggests, he
must change his life.

the children - like Fausto - haven't bought into her gospel of turning to stone


> Can't help but think how this is playing out in the 21st century.  The forces of globalization (faceless corporations exploiting people across the globe, draining resources, concentrating wealth and power in the hands of an unelected, uncontrollable oligarchy) versus the forces of reaction (religious fundamentalism - Christian, Jewish and Islamic, nationalism, anti-immigrant racism, with, alas, those of us who believe in strong, regulatory democratic government tacked on for the ride).
>

I'm tempted to once again invoke the ecclesiastical history read: V.
as the mother Church which has been led astray and pressed into
service of imperialism and warfare and slavery

so that the dear gospel that calls to Fausto is attenuated

and through the auspices of ever-more-powerful government and its
attendant rationalism, monasteries and other refuges from political
power and military-mercantile might are closed, foreclosed,
repurposed, gone is the convention of sanctuary, the churches that
remain have to be locked and even then are frequently plundered...

what is holy?  Profane would say, warm living, loving flesh
(and ready to be scratched in passion by inanimate fingernails...)