Re: My Reddit comments on Webb’s funeral

[Mark Kohut]

Whoa, David......high-powered detail.....

Let me try again. That Webb neglected his family and gave everything to the
union is the way he is talked of here. How does the author of AtD view
this? (authors
make judgments in their work about the values of characters; they make them
around their vision of life and history, etc. Slothrop and what happens to
him is an authorial judgment for example. I think TRP "says--shows---
something about the Traverses and their values in this book (and the other
where descendants appear)...Don't you?
So, is it possible TRP says/shows that so neglecting one's family so cuts
one off from a normal social life that one could end up as Webb does?
Simply: with a family, he had somewhere to go home to and avoid certain
people.

Thanks for the full engagement...

Mark





On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 1:40 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Reading: What Webb let become of his family is the main reason AUTHORIALLY
> he ended up the way he did. The way he died and was buried, that is.
>
> OK.  Let’s break this statement down to its primary components, subject,
> verb, object:
>
> SUBJECT:  “*What* (Webb let become of his family) ”
> VERB:  *“is”*
> OBJECT:  *“the* (main)* reason* (AUTHORIALLY he ended up the way he did).”
>
> *FIRST*
> The SUBJECT of the  statement (*WHAT*) has a modifier with its own
> subject,verb & object: ”*Webb let become of his family*.”
>
> This subject, “What,”  has a three parts modifier with its own subject,
> verb, & object
> SUBJECT:  *Webb*
> VERB:  *Let*
> OBJECT:  *Become* (of his family)
>
> I think the key word of this modifier is the verb “*to Let*.”
>
> 1: to cause to : MAKE <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/make>
>
> let me know
>
> 2a: to give opportunity to or fail to prevent:
>
> live and let live
>
> a cloud break let us see the summit
>
> let the opportunity slip
>
> 2b—used in the imperative to introduce a request or proposal:
>
> let us pray
>
> 2c—used as an auxiliary to express a warning:
>
> let him try
>
> 3: to free from or as if from confinement:
>
> let out a scream
>
> let blood
>
> 4: to permit to enter, pass, or leave:
>
> let them through
>
> let them off with a warning
>
> This object, “become,” is a verb that functions like a noun in the
> modifying phrase, meaning a “thing” that Webb “let.”  And this *THING*
> thus is a substitute or defining equivalent of the *subject “what” of the
> primary statement.*
>
> So, this *THING* that Webb  *made, or caused into being, or gave
> opportunity to, or failed to prevent, or requested to be introduced, or
> permitted to enter*, is the SUBJECT of the primary statement.
>
> *NEXT*
> “*IS*” is the statement’s *VERB*.
>
> Definition of is (Entry 1 of 4)
>
> present tense third-person singular of BE
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/be>
>
> dialectal present tense first-person and third-person singular of BE
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/be>
>
> dialectal present tense plural of BE
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/be>
>
>
> is- combining form
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/combining%20form>
>
> Definition of is- (Entry 4 of 4)
>
> 1: equal : homogeneous : uniform
>
> *THIRD*
> *“the* (main)* reason* (AUTHORIALLY he ended up the way he did).” Is the
> *OBJECT* of the primary statement.
>
> Essential Meaning of reason
>
> 1: a statement or fact that explains why something is the way it is, why
> someone does, thinks, or says something, or why someone behaves a certain
> way
>
> I gave a reason for my absence.
>
> Is there a reason for your strange behavior?
>
> So the statement’s OBJECT is the (authorial) explanation, or list of
> causes and manners of, in all its details of the Ways and Why’s of Webb’s
> END in ATD.
>
> Restated:  The horrifying death and the disrespect of his pre-burial (in
> Jeshemon) and burial (with the *Union’s* meanest kind of disrespect)  was
> written into the story the way that it was, or is explained by the author
> to have happened because of Webb’s causing or inviting or failing to
> prevent what became of Webb’s family.
>
> So, something that Webb caused before his death (we presume) to happen to
> his family after his death was the cause of his own horrific death.  Would
> this be called a manifestation of Jiu-Jitsu Karma?  Or something???
>
> I think only an especially cruel God would play that fate game.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 1:12 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> David,
>>
>> Since I am not making time to reread enough of AtD, although I did reread
> those eight pages you put in my hip, I am asking your opinion of this
> reading [interpretation] of Webb here re the union.
>
> Reading: What Webb let become of his family is the main reason AUTHORIALLY
> he ended up the way he did. The way he died and was buried, that is.
>
> Mark
>