Vineland, a tragic moment

[Michael Bailey]

general case of guns and lies ruining a perfectly good
evening...shooter and shootee having much more in common with each
other than with those who are better off because of what happens,
people like Vond (not much of a tragic protagonist because no
conscience) for whom this is part of a plan...suppliers of guns and
lies...

(Frenesi, though - very tragic protagonist...)


241 - Frenesi "I can't bring a gun in the house."

Vond "But you can bring a camera.  Can't you see, the two separate
worlds - one always includes a camera somewhere, and the other always
includes a gun, one is make-believe, one is real?  What if ths is some
branch point in your life, where you'll have to choose between
worlds?"

"So either I pussy out or become a courier of death, wow, this is some
swell choice you're giving me."

....

245 "tell him!" Rex was almost in tears. "Tell this asshole we know
everything." [which of course they don't]

Rex screaming, "Don't you walk away from me!" the squeak of a screen
door, feet and furniture thumping around....and when Howie finally got
there and Frenesi aimed the light, Weed was on his face with his blood
all on the cement...

Rex was staring into the camera, posing, pretending to blow smoke away
from the muzzle of the .38.  He would not after all be lucky enough to
sit under that oak on the dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously
saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future.  The camera moved
in on his face.  "Howie found the zoom," Ditzah commented.  "We
realized we were all there in an alley face-to-face with an insane
person with a loaded gun."