V-2nd - Chap 8 / I have really never read this book this closely before

[Michael Bailey]

but that was just a sidebar...

I meant to say, we proceed from the present and concrete - Benny in
the park, resting while questing for work

to memory and abstraction derived from his personal experience, a
cherishing of how he's noticed that there's at least something (liking
to see young people get together) in his own emotional make-up that
resonates with other people

and then the narrator doesn't make him go on to connect that urge up
with the insect-like urge that only thinks of its own pleasure, and
seeks to maximize it at the cost of bad relationships (wars, kingdoms,
rebellions)

-- no, he's saved by his willingness to extend the good feeling to
others!  Sort of like that Spanish locution that isn't as
"possessious" as the English equivalent - a lot of times in Spanish
they say "the" instead of "my", don't they?  The ankle instead of
always my ankle, etc.

There are great complexities and depths to this passage in Bryant
Park.  Perhaps the wisdom of the books in the Public Library is
guiding him.

And, as a bibliophile, it's good to know that this location is the
central nexus for jobseeking in Manhattan.  Something kind of
emblematic, if not outright symbolic, about that!