Re: My Reddit comments on Webb’s funeral

Fri Dec 31 14:13:41 UTC 2021

How about fountainhead figure? (you say eethore; I say eyethore, etc.)

On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 9:01 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Very nice!  And with that last word I think it’s clear that Webb is the
> capstone figure in ATD.
>
> DM
>
> On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 8:39 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>