Re: My Reddit comments on Webb’s funeral

[Mark Kohut]

Yes, David, I did get that you thought my question was absurd.....yet, you
did give an answer, a reading of Webb outside of the parameters of my
question. Thanks.

DM: *I think TRP has in Webb written one of his fullest and most
sympathetic and humorously likable characters ever, and in a very short
number of words.  He is *almost* a completely pure character.  Webb has
become as close to a Christ figure as TRP could possibly make him  in the
description of  his brutal death and crucifixion and his residency in Hell.
  So, in this reading, the Union become **almost** the Pharisees, and Vibe
(as the prime Company Owner) is always the Satan.*

*Later, the 800's Reef has a dream too...."*It was darker out here than he
had any idea of. In the distance Reef caught sight of a procession of
miners in their long rubber coats, only one of them, about halfway along,
with the candle stub in his hat lit. Like postulants in habits, they
proceeded single file down a narrow street like a humid drift lit back or
front by a yellow lamp. As Reef came closer he saw the bearer of the light
was Webb.

        "Small victories," Webb greeted him. "Just to come away with one or
two. To praise and to honor the small victories where and however they
happen."
        "Hasn't been too many of them lately, Pa," Reef tried to say.
        "Not talking about yours, you numbskull."
        Understanding that this was Webb's attempt to pass on another
message, like up the séance in the Alps, Reef saw just for one lucid
instant that this was the precise intelligence he needed to get him back to
where he had wandered off the trail, so long ago. And then he was awake and
trying to remember why it was important."

To your reading point: Reef...saw the bearer of the light was Webb.

I think, if I reread and thought as carefully as you have here, I would see
better the--degradation? the decline?---of the Traverse name and values
that started with a kind of purity with Webb. ....And intentionally so from
TRP obviously. [authorial intent of course] .....the children, the sons,
more mixed I have and would argue but I will also wait for more words from
you about them.

I wish I could add an AtD reread to my reading schedule but my string ran
out.....(when I stopped out of the Group Read I did too solo....

Happy New Year!





On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 8:09 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> “Are you talking to “ME???”,”  he said, in his best Robert DiNero (Taxi
> Drver) imitation.
>
> Oh!!! Why didn’t you axe that in the first place?
>
> [and, in the context of that silly question,  let me tell you (having just
> woken up) how my dreams for the last two nights were so SO META, that I
> kept waking up thinking “why am I dreaming this crazy shit,”  where (still
> dreaming) I keep semi-waking from my dream and saying to my dreaming self,
> in frustration, “I know this dream makes no sense, because (I know) in it I
> keep trying to write and direct this film that’s impossible to film,  and
> with no script (a a list of other frustrations that I know are because I
> dreaming)…”.   And after repeatedly  refusing to continue with the
> filming-dream charade, I wake up, and get out of bed, in full refusal to
> continue the dream.]
>
> So, now awake, let me answer.  It should be clear that I thought the
> “authorial internet” statement you gave me was completely absurd AND the
> last thing I think TRP intended in his writing.
>
> *I think TRP has in Webb written one of his fullest and most sympathetic
> and humorously likable characters ever, and in a very short number of
> words.  He is *almost* a completely pure character.  Webb has become as
> close to a Christ figure as TRP could possibly make him  in the description
> of  his brutal death and crucifixion and his residency in Hell.   So, in
> this reading, the Union become **almost** the Pharisees, and Vibe (as the
> prime Company Owner) is always the Satan.*
>
> I sure hope this purges the Meta-dreaming out of my system.
>
> David Morris
>
> PS.  I think the NEXT step I’m supposed to take in this sem-lucid “dream
> yoga” (that’s a real thing) is to hold on to the knowledge that I’m
> dreaming, but to drop the frustration, and let it flow while I ride in it
> calmly.  I’ll see if I can manage to do that next time.
>
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=dream+yoga+practice&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS955US956&oq=dream+yoga&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j46i512l2j0i512l3.26188j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
>
> Dream yoga or milam —the Yoga of the Dream State—is a suite of advanced
> tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen. Dream yoga
> consists of tantric processes and techniques within the trance Bardos of
> Dream and Sleep Six Dharmas of Naropa. Wikipedia
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_yoga>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 6:05 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> let me just ask it straight: How do you think TRP "sees" Webb in Against
>> the Day?
>>
>> 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
>>>
>>