CoL49 group reading ch3 - co-executors

[Michael Bailey]

Since Metzger and Oedipa are co-executors, can they act independently?

Texas:
https://riddlebutts.com/practice-areas/probate/fiduciary-duties/#:~:text=Pursuant%20to%20Texas%20law%2C%20any,any%20conveyance%20of%20real%20estate.
Pursuant to Texas law, *any Executor or Administrator can act alone to bind
the estate*, except that all Executors must execute any conveyance of real
estate.


New York:
https://www.justanswer.com/estate-law/54kfs-co-executor-bind-estate-real-estate-transaction.html

It depends upon the will. If the will is silent or unless the will provides
that either executor may act alone, the consent of both executors is going
to be required to bind the estate. If there are more than two co-executors,
the act of a majority can bind the estate.


The other states are harder to find.

I don’t think it matters a heck of a lot. Metzger is going to be doing the
heavy lifting and Oedipa mostly signing stuff.

Why did Pierce make her co-executor anyway?

Was it because he didn’t fully trust Metzger?

Maybe he really didn’t mean she wouldn’t be easy “sexually” - but rather
that she would make his job more difficult?

Reading into this quite licentiously, what if Pierce was a kind of
visionary - people with that kind of ability are quite rare - and, knowing
this, his idea of succession planning was to put the mantle onto Metzger,
hoping that Oedipa would inspire Metzger in a similar way to that in which
she had inspired Pierce.

Beneficiaries are never listed, though.
Without that knowledge, that thesis can hardly fly, though it remains an
enticing possibility.


- Tristero obviously suggests “triste” or sadness.
- the other spelling which also occurs is “Trystero”, suggesting a
rendezvous

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tryst

1
*: *an agreement (as between lovers) to meet
2
*: *an appointed meeting or meeting place


This novel is clearly not about the details of the estate, (is it?) but
more about what Oedipa gleans from her involvement.

Once again speculating beyond any reasonable remit (except the Scrooge
tale) it seems as if she left him because she wasn’t into all that wheeling
and dealing & felt he had become less than lovable.

& it seems like he was resisting that narrative by showing her the fruits
of his efforts.

99% it seems like she disdains it.

Just that one time (iirc) she feels some affection for one of his works -
the social hall on the “lake isle of Inverarity” if you will…

In fact fell in love with it.

This is a pretty strong statement; if she’d seen this while they were still
together, would that make a difference?
Like after knocking down all those trees & building fancy homes, in the
middle of it all is this lake with a social hall - where people would
gather for fun and frolic and other important stuff -

And like Faust, saved by the eternal feminine because he wanted to make the
moment last when he was helping people - Pierce escapes damnation -

Oedipa accepts his vision, falls in love with it in fact, and knowingly
lets Metzger get on with executing, no longer worrying about that aspect
but instead developing her own thoughts based on her authentic self which
unfortunately was still never that into the dude no matter how deep his
undying devotion to her.

To quote _Gravity’s Rainbow_,
““Yeah well,” as film critic Mitchell Prettyplace puts it in his definitive
18-volume study of King Kong, “you know, he did love her, folks.” ”


And her own thoughts get more and more interesting.