Late capitalism a quote

[David Morris]

OMFG!  GMAFB! and ILMFAO!
Joe’s characterizations, below, are almost completely of his own invention,
and they even run contrary to how the text portrays Webb’s final days as a
Union Member. * It sure would be nice if Joe presented some actual text (as
I have been doing) as support for his statements, instead of stating his
interpretations as if they were declarations of self-evident facts.    *That
sure would be nice...

BTW, it sure is lucky for Joe that Mark briefly thanked me for sending this
earlier email that Joe is now responding to, because he has strictly
forbidden himself to read any emails directly from me.  So, Mark?  Maybe
you should *spare Joe having to read my emails INDIRECTLY *next time*,
*by *erasing
my content before you respond to the P-List.*

Or you could put a big  ****MORRIS SPOILER ALERT**** in front of what he’s
told us he wants to avoid at the cost of his serenity.

On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 3:59 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Pg 193 ATD
> Lake said Webb only loved the Union.
> I"F IT WAS LOVE, it was less than two-way. With no more respectable
> family-man dodge to hide behind, Webb sought the embrace of Local 63,
> which, alarmed at the vehemence of his need, decided there ought to be some
> distance between him and the Union, and suggested he shift over into the
> Uncompahgre for a while, to the Torpedo workings."
>
> So a couple things. Webb’s connection to the union had until soon before
> his murder been purposely distant because he was keeping a low profile to
> continue his private anarchist activities



I don’t know if you really want to dive into ATD with me, but if you do,
here goes:  Let’s start with page 189:

1. “By the end, Webb Traverse had worked his way up to shift boss at the
Little Hellkite workings.”  So, “working his way up” to a higher than
previous Union position doesn’t seem to be at all like “purposely keeping
his connection to the Union distant” and a higher Union position is sorta
the opposite of “keeping a low profile” with the Union.

2.  The text doesn’t support the timing that says he sought and achieved
the shift boss position only AFTER Mayva and Lake left [BTW, all the rest
of “his children” had already left long before].  In fact, in the context
of having gotten this promotion, “It seemed like he could get along with
everybody theses days [like, for example “Veiko and his squarehead
compadres who were giving him a party to celebrate”] except the two women
in his own family,” who left in days probably not long after the [ ?”low
profile “?] celebration.

3.  *Nowhere* is it said nor implied in this chapter or previously, that he
was concerned about his Union job status as being a potential threat or
danger to his family.   I’m sure will try to imply that the text is clearly
implying **something** about Webb being concerned about the hidden/unstated
threat to “his (all-but-Lake long gone) children.” But that it that
implication-convolution will only be clear to him (because he wants it to
support his political posturing.)

4.  Nowhere in the text is does it state that Webb had plans to “continue
his private anarchist activities” after getting the shift boss position.

It does state that he “sought the embrace of Local 63” after the departure
of Mayva and Lake had “left him with no more respectable family-man dodge
to hide behind.”  I guess one could *stretch* that to mean that he now
sought higher Union position as cover for future terrorist attacks. But it
never comes close to saying that.  The *context* is having just lost the
last two of “his own family, the ones [the women] that ought to’ve mattered
most,” but that it seemed “as if with the boys all out there in the wind
[already] his place was now [“now” meaning, *“now, having been left alone
without the women”] *out there in the wind too.”

His dream of being “out there in wind” was to be with the boys, NOT stated
nor implied to mean he wants to continue terrorism.  The text says that he
figured that [now] his “chances of running into each other [the boys] again
were better out there than in some domestic interior [as he’d been with
Mayva].” And his being “out there in the wind” is also NOT an analogy
(nowhere even close) to his now being a Union shift boss.

In this context, his having played the “respectable family-man dodge to
hide behind” was him *dodging from himself*, not the Company.  His “real
love” WAS the Union, and it WAS being a free and wild man “out there in the
wind” like his sons.

So maybe, now being alone, he *might* have considered future explosives
jobs, but the Union promoted him BEFORE he became more “*needy*” for Union
embrace. *And you can’t change that chronology without putting in a HUGE *
*non-existent **separation between paragraphs one and two on page 189*.
And those two paragraphs flow together like a gentle stream.

Equally important, theorizing that the Union was now distancing Webb,  now
that he was now being single and needy, and that thus they had new fears
that he’d start new terrorist jobs makes no sense at all.  According to
that logic they should have been fearing him at least as much as when he
had “family-man” cover.  He was no-less a Union man then (and was now a
boss).  And if Webb had thought that he had an effective “family-man”
cover, then he wouldn’t have had reason to wait for Mayva to leave before
starting terrorist actions. There’s a circular logic being played here that
needs breaking.

*And going all the way back to our first introduction to Webb in ATD, when
he was a VERY active terrorist, he NEVER had opposition from the Union
about his explosives actions.*

But really the PARAMOUNT textual fact to consider is that *ANY Union fear
of (or opposition to) any terrorist pro-Union actions is completely outside
anything in the text*.  If there was ever a real historical documentation
 of the Unions at any period covered in ATD being opposed to support by
terrorism, it isn’t even hinted at in ATD.  So to use that extra-textual
hypothetical as a major pivot for the actions and motives of the main
characters of the novel is *a stretch way too far*.

David Morris


Blah, blah, blah...

without close surveillance and his union endorsements may have been mostly
> directed at his children. Only with them gone did he try to get more
> involved and they found him too intense, even moving him. So there was no
> chance for bonds to form and he was murdered soon after he started working
> at a new location.




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