CoL49 group reading ch3 - co-executors

[Joseph Tracy]

By the way Michael, Thanks for digging into this legal stuff. I really did not have much of a clue.

> On May 28, 2024, at 8:50 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 24, 2024, at 3:16 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com <mailto:michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Since Metzger and Oedipa are co-executors, can they act independently?
> Seems like the point of those laws is that they have to agree to do anything important
> The weird part being how little any of those details  of settling the will, who are the inheritors, where all this money and power is going enter the picture. The parts OM gets interested in( The bones , the stamps, the W.A.S.T.E. , the play introducing Trysero meet constant resistance from Metzger. The parallel that comes to mind is the elaborate systems by which criminal activity provides itself with legal cover and how it can all unravel if someone just keeps tugging on a particular anomaly or suspicious act.
> 
> OM is tugging more out of curiosity and the web of connections her curiosity brings together than Metzger.  What is hard here is knowing what Inverarity wanted at all. We don’t know how he died, if he foresaw his death, where he wanted his money to go, who he cared about( if anyone )though he seems to have felt more strongly about OM than the logic of the story tells us, his relatives, his foundations . Metzger, I feel, has a goal, but we don’t know that either. OM almost declined the role, but got involved through the kind of  curiosity and skepticism and her decisive self defense against callous self-absorption  that Inverarity knew, was stung by, and seemingly respected. 
> 
> If we go to the idea of OM as the american public, faced with the bizarre circumstances of the JFK killing some of the reactions that surround her confusion and blind groping make sense, the disappearing and reappearing power struggle, stretching back through generations, the distractions, the transfer of evidence as something seemingly as trivial as a stamp collection is sold. The bizarre record contained in those stamps.
>> 
>> 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?
> This question is powerful to my mind and part of what I was trying to get at above.
>> 
>> 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 -
> Nice this makes sense of something I did not quite get so skipped over. 
>> 
>> 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.
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