CoL49 2024 group reading ch6 - Fallopian encounter

[Joseph Tracy]

Excellent. Brings out the nuance of this encounter nicely.  Perhaps Fallopian also sees that if the tristero is real , then the real terrain is not as simple as his map and so he reinforces the idea that the big shots are in charge, have played her, and it’s time for a right wing revolution.  

> On Aug 4, 2024, at 2:05 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Fallopian has changed his look, attracting a bevy of “broads”
> 
> She’d found him amusing before, but here she rapidly develops an antipathy.
> 
> It’s understandable that his Castro getup repels her, and even more so when
> she finds out he’s already in touch with Winthrop Tremaine.
> 
> But in the text, the gradations of her dislike occur in step with his
> entirely reasonable suggestions as to how she should proceed with respect
> to the Tristero.
> 
> “She gave him a quick status report. He kept quiet while she talked, his
> expression slowly changing to something she couldn’t recognize. It bothered
> her.”
> 
> 
> 
> What is she looking for from him? Some kind of human comfort, or at least a
> willingness to humor her, one surmises. In vain.
> 
> 
> This is the part I find it hard to grok:
> 
> “I knew you’d be different,” she said, “Mike, because everybody’s been
> changing on me. But it hadn’t gone as far as hating me.”
> 
> “Hating you.” He shook his head and laughed.
> 
> 
> He’s gone all rational & unsympathetic, true - but hate?
> Laughing at the notion is insensitive but not indicative of hatred.
> 
> He doesn’t care about her, & never has, is maybe what she’s clearly
> perceiving for the first time - or rather, allowing herself to perceive,
> having avoided that perception as also she’s avoided the thought that The
> Tristero might be a put-on, and also the thought that someday she herself
> “would have to die”
> 
> Absent the semblance of personal connection which they’ve been enacting,
> the façade which he’s dropped in favor of an overtly violent revolutionary
> persona, she sees the fanatic in his true nature embodying a philosophy
> born of hatred & realizes she’s not in any circle of people whom he doesn’t
> hate?
> 
> She sure does immediately drop him off her Christmas list! Which, he has it
> coming…n’est ça pas?
> --
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