final question re Lew B....

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut  wrote:
> with that talk of some sin he doesn't even know about and Troth telling him about going back to his other wives and having 'destroyed his name' sez one.......
>
> Is his trip somehow into the past, his past?
>
> Is this sin he doesn't even know about his inherent vice? His 'original sin'?....
>


It's also a fiendishly attention-getting way to introduce a character!


Due to some kind person's alerting us all to that "White City" book
during the lead-up
(thanks!) Lew's heinous crime at first looked to me like he might turn
out to be that
murdering doctor dude.  Then when he segues into his bizarre new life,
wasn't it a little like the way Brock Vond becomes a Thanatoid in _Vineland_?


The confusion surrounding his crimes almost seems like it might stem
from a mental
illness that he has, a paranoia where he perceives people saying these
things about him,
or maybe a really bad repressed sexuality issue (the "upstate-downstate beast")
or a period of drug addiction or alcoholism, or some kind of inner turmoil
--- that would explain why the police, in between framing unionists,
don't bother him -
because even the (hopelessly corrupt, reactionary) Chicago police
eventually caught that doctor guy...

However...hmm...The fact that his crimes (if not imaginary)
are apparently public knowledge and yet he is never
accosted, arrested or impeded by any form of law enforcement office,
works in conjunction with his later career as a detective persecuting
unionists -
both situation reflects how law has been diverted to a tool of
political enforcement, and criminals walk free

There's a viciousness in society (in and out of AtD) allowing,
expecting, forcing
people to ignore or forget elephants in the room like colonialism,
slavery, land grabs,
stolen elections, merchants of war, to excuse and even to laud robber barons

in this context it's plausible that he doesn't even know what he's done wrong

But at least he tries to find out!

Drave and the mysterious guides represent how justice works through
extrajudicial means to reach those who seek it?


-- 
-- "(Sure, you can build a great sense of self-worth by carrying around
an unfolded accordion, but sometimes a person needs to wallow in
self-doubt, carefully concealing the squeeze-box.)" - why's Poignant
Guide to Ruby