V-2nd - Chapter 8 - Benny's decency // Fugue your buddy

[Michael Bailey]

Me personally, I don't really see any harm in Pig and Profane swapping
sea stories.

If Benny fails to grab onto any existential notion of identity that
would propel him into a narrative,
still he has some kind of basic decency or self-restraint.  Or,
perhaps, a small homeopathic influence toward decency, or lack of
willingness to override decency in the pursuit of mindless pleasure...
that is, although he's mounting the pool table, he does get off (or,
doesn't get off...) and doesn't chase the nubile teen to some quieter
venue...
and he's willing to call a favor to keep Pig from doing Paola

has the Fina episode if nothing else given him a sense - like Juliet's dad - of
"too soon marred are those so early made"?

What is the relationship between his feelings of schlemihl-hood
and his repeating disinclination of proceeding romantically?

Could it be that he really is just "waiting for the right one", and
because of societal pressures, this seems corny to him and he has to
disavow it, although it's so strong that he can't act counter to it?

Before we reject this out of hand, let us recall that, in AtD, either
Frank or Kit Traverse has "some kind of deadman switch" that prevents
him from wholeheartedly engaging in romantic adventures.

----------
so, anyway, Rachel chats up the musicians, and if you were really
going to fugue your buddy...

hmm, that could mean put him into a fugue state.  Although that
reminds me of some episodes in my own life when various buddies
enabled various other buddies with copious dollops of intoxicants; and
in V., obviously, many episodes of this sort of fuguing occur (and,
arguably, represent a sincere appreciation of social lubricants)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state
"Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering,
and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity."
(although the buzz-dampers who wrote the DSM go on to disallow
psychotropic episodes, but what do they know?)

or, more musically,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue#Double_.28triple.2C_quadruple.29_fugue
I return to the idea of counterpoint and development...
to some extent, all the characters have some thoughts, and influence
each others' meditations...


-- 
- "After all, Salaam and Shalom are only slight different spellings of
 a word that means the same thing in Arabic and Hebrew.
Which translated into English means peace be upon you." - Norman Spinrad