I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WOODY GUTHRIE-This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol 1 (1997).

Protesters don’t get more powerful or more emblematic than Woody Guthrie (if nothing else, he should be forever thanked for “This Land is Your Land”).   Some of his other great political songs are “Lindbergh” (“Now Lindy tried to join the army, but they wouldn’t let ‘im in,/’Fraid he’d sell to Hitler a few more million men”).  There’ also the silly on the surface “Do Re Mi” which holds a deeper meaning: “They think they’re goin’ to a sugar bowl, but here’s what they find/Now, the police at the port of entry say,”You’re number fourteen thousand for today.”/ Oh, if you ain’t got the do re mi, folks, you ain’t got the do re mi,/Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.”

He also introduced a wider world to his “Talkin’ Blues” which were influential on Bob Dylan among others.

The thing that I didn’t know about him was that he wrote so many “silly” songs.  “Car Song” features some car engine noises (as done by a three-year old) as a verse.  “Why Oh Why” which is a nonsensical call and response song: “Why don’t you answer my questions?/Why, oh why, oh why?/’Cause I don’t know the answers.
Goodbye goodbye goodbye.” And “Talking Hard Work” is a pretty hilarious look at how hard it is to do nothing.

The only thing I don’t particularly care for on this disc is, well, Woody’s voice.  I’ve listened to this disc many times, and I have grown to appreciate it, but it was quite a shock to hear his reedy, unpolished voice and how tinny the recording it.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that this music is available to hear, but don’t expect 21st (or even mid-20th) century production or anything.

Here’s a verse that most people don’t know from “This Land is Your Land”

There was a big high wall/there that tried to stop me/The sign was painted; said “Private Property”/But on the back side it didn’t say nothing/This land was made for you and me

[READ: Week of July 23, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Seventh Letters]

Last week, Sophia wrote to Yarostan without having read his letter (which was just as well, as Mirna was pretty far off the deep end).  But Yarostan has received Sophia’s letter and is ready to write back to her.

And he is thrilled that he and Sophia are really in synch with their attitudes and events for once (things have changed a lot for him since he last wrote).

I regret much of what I said in that letter. I now have an opposite admission to make to you.  I was very moved when you said you were waiting for me to walk into your “council office.”  If such an expedition should ever be undertaken, I’ll be the first to volunteer and of course I’ll bring Yara and Mirna along as well as Jasna and Zdenek. I love you, too, Sophia; we all do; you’ve seduced us with your honesty and especially with your modest, almost shy courage (497).

In fact, things are worlds apart in Yarostan’s household.  Mirna was thrilled to get the latest letter and to learn that Sophia was on strike.  But more importantly, Mirna reveals that she herself is on strike, too!  And they will be partying!  Jasna excitedly comments that they are in the same world, separated only by geography.

Zdenek comes over and reads the letter too, but he has a hard time thinking that the unions where Sophia is are the same as unions where they are.  And Mirna jumps all over him, asking if old age is making him conservative.  But Zdenek makes what I think is an excellent point about the postal workers.  Everyone uses the mail, even rebels.  So, sure they should have rights too, but encouraging them to strike doesn’t only harm capitalists.

Jasna agrees and is worried that they won’t hear from Sophia now.  But she also decides that it was Sophia’s first letter that caused everyone’s arrest 12 years ago:

“What she didn’t know was that her step-father, or whatever he was to her, was a foreign spy in the police records. It all makes sense to me now. When I was arrested together with Vera and Adrian, the police kept asking me if I’d known Sophia Alberts; I’d kept insisting that wasn’t her last name; I had forgotten her step-father’s name. I don’t think I even knew his name. But to the police Luisa was Alberts’ wife, and both Sabina as well as Sophia were his daughters. And since we had known all three of them, we were obviously spies.”
“But you didn’t even get the letter,” I point out.
“That part I can understand,” Zdenek says. “It wouldn’t be the first time the police incarcerated people because of crimes they had not yet committed, crimes which the police themselves expected those people to commit in the future” (501).

They debate the likelihood of this and look for a culprit.   Three of the people who Sophia wrote to were “officials” of one sort or another: Claude, Titus and Marc.  Claude hated all of them but Jasna saw him after and he seemed baffled by the whole thing.  Titus himself spent a year in jail at that time too.  Mirna points out that it was a year later than everyone else, but Jasna says that Titus would have loved to hear from them, and she clears his name.  They conclude it must have been Marc (although he was arrested as well).  In this case, they say that the police bungled with him.

Zdenek wonders what could have been in the letters that could cause their arrest and they say that it was just to stop what they are doing now–talking about a strike.  Whispers leads to shouting after all.

Then they talk about Sophia’s guilt, from afar, for everyone ending up in jail and Lem’s life being destroyed and how the four of them (the Nacahalos) fled once they were freed.  But Jasna defends them:

“Someone was ready to arrest Luisa alone and didn’t expect the rest of us to follow her to prison. I think that someone was Claude, who must have been a police agent already then. He thought he could turn the rest of us against Luisa by telling us Alberts was a spy and Luisa his accomplice. That would have isolated Luisa while the rest of us followed Claude like sheep…” (505).

It didn’t work of course.  But, then Jasna remembers that she first heard the rumor that Luisa was a spy from Vera.  We all remember that Vera was jealous of Luisa.  But let’s not forget that Vera hated Claude so she never would have worked with him.

And, thankfully, the question of their release from jail in just two days is back again.  Yarostan finds Luisa’s explanation troublesome, but he’s not sure why yet.  But Mirna is aggravated by the whole thing and claims that the Nacahlos are not the angels that everyone thinks they are.  Especially when Yara gleefully shouts that she would have been on the front line just like Margarita.

This leads to further confusion (on my part) about the events of that militia that everyone was involved in.  I should have been mapping out the different arguments, but I didn’t.  And, as I said, I understand the basics of what each side is saying, but there different terms for each side and different POVs, so it’s hard to keep it straight. Not to mention the deliberate obfuscation from everyone.  The basic story is that Luisa’s union side abandoned themselves to an army that was just as fascist as the army they fought against, and this new army turned on the workers. That’s why they had to flee.  But they all tried to define who was the “popular army” and who was militia.  So that even now, people who were involved in it are telling different sides of the story.

Zdenek is dismayed by all this talk of the unions being used.  For in his heart he sees the union as an instrument, a train:

we spent years building the bed, the ties, the rails, the locomotive and the cars; when the train was all built, we set it in motion and once it began to move it continued moving until it reached its final destination.  Without such an instrument, we feel naked, disarmed, alone (510).

Regardless, he would never have acted like Margarita; he’d be afraid he’d be the only one out there at the front.

Mirna jumps on this and argues that Margarita and Nachalo are the only ones to be admired.  Zdenek argues that Mirna glorifies death–the people who died didn’t die because they wanted to, they were fighting for something else.  You can’t glorify them just because they died.

This was all a few days ago.  Then Yara went with Julia and Slobodon to camp in the mountains.  When Yara returned she came in asking what they had done to Jasna.  Mirna says that she insulted her, that’s what happened.  Before Mirna gives any more details, they ask how Yara’s trip was.  And she says:

The most fun was when we played love games on a mountain top, just Julia, Slobodon and I.  Once, I [pretended to be] Vera Krena and another time I was you.  And once Julia pretended to be the devil.  It was beautiful, mommy (515).

Wow, I’m really confused by the attitudes here, but that’s nothing compared to this story that Jasna tells:

“I climbed to a mountain top nine months before you were born, Yara. I took everyone I loved: my brother and my father, my husband and my friend as well as several of their comrades….  With all the strength in my arms I pulled all twelve of my loved ones to the top of the mountain, and when all twelve were on the rock, they became one, the one I loved most of all–”
“The devil!,” Yara shouts.
“Yes, Yara.  The devil fathered you on that mountain top twelve years ago”
“That’s a beautiful story, mommy” (515).

Okay, what the fuck.  Even metaphorically, this story is bizarre, and I can’t imagine what Yara has been through to think the story is beautiful.  In fact the only time when Yara is disturbed by the story is when Mirna says that all of her loved ones were killed on the way down the mountain: “My love games destroyed everyone I loved” (516).

Yara is upset by this story, but Yarostan is moved by it (!).  He finally realizes the pain she must have felt during his prison term [Finally?!].   While he was in prison, he felt that he was a burden to Mirna and he asked her to divorce him–he had no idea how long he’d be in prison.  But she raged against him, how dare he think of that when his release is all that is keeping her going?

[This whole aspect of their relationship I found fascinating.  And believable on both parts.  I could see him wanting her to move on since he didn’t know how long he’s be in there.  And I can see her being angry at this “generous” offer.  But again, unless they actually communicate, nothing is getting done here.]

They begin talking about Mirna’s mother, whom Yara says was crazy and that she lied about everything.  Mirna smacks Yara and shouts, “You’ll kill the rest of us!” (517).

Yarostan restrains Mirna and remembers back to departed Vesna.  He barely knew her.  And once he was in jail, her classmates mocked her, calling her “Traitor’s daughter” and “foreign spy.”  Vesna was often dispatched to visit  Yarostan, since Mirna was working.  She brought him care packaged but always looked at him with hatred.  And then abruptly she stopped coming.

When Titus visited several months later, he told Yarostan that Vesna was sick.  Yarostan tried to convince Titus to convince Mirna to divorce him and marry Titus.  Mirna visited next (only her second visit in years).  She yelled at him that Titus asked to marry her, and they had a pretty big argument.

The next time, Yara and Mirna visited him and revealed that Vesna gets goose pimply whenever anyone touches her.  Which Miran blames on her mother and which she means she doesn’t have the devil in her like they do.  She also told Yarostan that he should be released in about 200 days.  Yarostan was awaiting his release date when Yara visited one last time to say that Vesna was dead…They killed her.

This is the second most bizarre and confusing section of the novel.  It heaps tons of malice upon doctors and hospitals.  And while some of it is certainly warranted, the extent of hatred and accusations about killing Vesna seem simply unfounded (unless hospitals were really that bad there).

Essentially we learn that Vensa got sick and Mirna and Yara would never call the doctor on her.   It seems that Vesna was terribly afraid of Yarostan’s return, and so she made herself paralyzed.  Yarostan can’t get much more out of Yara than that.

The flashback ends and we return to the scene after Mirna slapped Yara.  When Yarostan wakes up the next morning, Mirna is acting the same way that Vesna did all those years ago: paralyzed and unmovable.  And the most heartbreaking thing is Yara:

Yara rushes to our bedroom, shrieks the moment she enters, and jumps on top of the bed.  “Mommy, don’t do that!” she shouts, shaking Mirna’s arms and shoulders. “Beat me all you  want, but don’t look like that!” Then Yara starts to shriek hysterically: “Stop it, mommy! I’ll be Vesna! I’ll be anyone you want! But stop it! Please! I love you, mommy. You can be the old woman if you want. But don’t make them take you away. Please, please stop it!” (526).

Yarostan wants to take Mirna to the hospital, but Yara freaks and tells him to go to hell.  He finally tries to find out what’s going on and Yara concludes:

Nothings wrong with her! She’s playing with you and me!…Please, father don’t have her killed for playing! (527).

Yarostan leaves to find Zdenek and Jasna.  By the time he gets back, they are already there.  But they seem to think that it’s Yarostan who they should be worried about.   They all yell at Yarostan telling him he’s being a muleheaded jerk.  Finally, Zdenek says, that

Mirna is convinced she’s carrying a terrible burden.  She thinks she’s responsible for all the deaths in her family, including her own daughter’s….  Mirna’s sickness is nothing but an attempt to destroy Yara’s carefree love of life.  She’s determined to drive guilt into the child and she’s apparently willing to die trying because she’s as muleheaded as you are (528).

And what about Vesna?  She acted this way and she’s dead.  Zdenek says, “The only thing wrong with Vesna was that she grew up in this house between her sister, her mother and her grandmother” (528).

Basically, the hospital couldn’t figure out that this little girl was pretending this paralysis, that she was playing a game.  [Really?]  I can believe the part that the doctors tried to keep Mirna and Yara away from her (to an extent, I can believe it), but when Yara found her,

Vesna was wide awake, staring at the ceiling just like mommy is, but I knew they were killing her; they had all kinds of tubes connected to her: in her arm, through her nose and elsewhere. Poor Vesna couldn’t breathe. I went up to her and told her, ‘If you don’t stop, they won’t let you come out and see father when he returns.’ She said, ‘I’ve seen him and I hate him.’ I asked her, ‘Do you want to stay here?’ She said, ‘No, Yara, I hate it here, I hate all these people, I want to go back to grandmother’s room!’ I got mad at her and shouted, ‘Then stop pretending!’ Vesna said, ‘I can’t.’ (529).

Apparently doctors can’t tell when a kid is faking.  Jasna agrees

“How could Yara’s sister, Mirna’s daughter, herself an accomplished prankster, fool all those doctors and nurses? Children do that in school every day of the year — not just to me; that’s easy; some fool the entire teaching staff for months at a stretch! Those doctors authoritatively told Titus she was in critical condition, she had a clot on the brain, and even that her brain was damaged — and they treated her for all that!” (530).

[I am simply not accepting any of this as reality now.]

When their story ends, Yarostan feels that he was responsible for Vesna’s death: he was never nice to her and was outwardly disdainful of her when she visited him.  Yara replies:

“Your feelings had nothing to do with it,” Yara says insistently. “Vesna was playing a game with me and with no one else, and she won — ”
“A game, Yara? And Vesna won?”

And I’m about to throw this book out the window now.  But then it gets even weirder.  Mirna snaps out of it when she hears Yara describe Vesna’s attempts to kiss herself in the mirror.  Mirna comes in,

She walks toward us, kneels in front of Yara and throws her arms around her. “Did you really see Vesna kiss herself in the mirror?”
Yara throws her arms around Mirna’s neck and, kissing her on the lips, whispers, “Like this, mommy; it’s the only way you can kiss in a mirror. And I know she wanted a boy in school to kiss her — ”
“You’re not making it up?”
“I swear, mommy.”
“Please don’t call me that any more.”
“Mommy? Why not?”
“Because you’re so much smarter than I am.”
Zdenek is the only one without tears on his face. He gets up and exclaims, “That was a nasty trick, Mirna! That whole elaborate performance just to get your daughter to admit her share of the guilt!”
“You’re smart too, father,” Mirna whimpers. “I’m the only idiot here” (533).

And the letter ends after a closing word from Yarostan as if all of this wasn’t completely insane.

How on earth will Sophia respond to this lunacy?

Well, she has more pressing things on her mind:

Outside there’s a general strike. Everything is out of commission. Literally everything: factories, offices, transportation vehicles, even taxis — everything except the telephones, and a radio station that’s been taken over by the police (535).

She’s back at Luisa’s, and she’s thinking about Yarostan’s declaration that he doesn’t love her.  She was enraged at his confessions, but was even more enraged because she could see the girl who Yarostan described–she is the submissive girl that she always fought against.

She remembers being caught by Luisa with Yarostan, and she was embarrassed at being seen as a body:

Ashamed because I thought myself the very negation of a body: I was all principle, revolutionary determination, goal. If your desire wasn’t roused by any passion in me except my shame, it’s because that shame was the only passion in me (537).

But back to her reality.  Sophia calls Luisa because her plant is on strike with all the rest.  So she invites her and Daman to the university.  She then asks how the romance with Daman is going, and Luisa responds that he’s even more of a puritan than she is.  But at least he’s excited politically–they’re going to a union picket line today.

Sophia says they’d love to go with her, and can Daman go across the border to her PO Box.  Despite the request, Sophia intends to take Luisa down a notch by having her group raise hell at Luisa’s picket line.

So they meet at the university first.  Sophia is listening to the group talk.  [And I had a very specific thought about the events that Sophia describes: it seems all talk, very intellectual, with no real plan for action].  They are bummed to hear that the plants’ foreign offices are not on strike and are running at full production.  About two hours into it (!) Luisa knocks on the door (everyone laughs at the formality).  But it’s clear that Luisa is not comfortable here.

Sophia goes to shake Daman’s hand but he’s snotty.  He hands her the envelopes she wanted and tells her that he finally got his organization off the ground. And they have put out one issue of the paper. It’s two articles. Luisa wrote one of them (and later she dismisses the content of the other one).

Sophia mocks him, and then realizes she’s scaring away someone new so she lightens up.  But when Pat sees the paper he jumps in with the mockery.  Daman grows indignant:

“What you understand by workers may be very different from what I understand.” With a sweep of his arm he dismisses the roomful of people as well as the stacks of strike announcements and factory occupation accounts. “Students parading as a new working class just don’t cut the ice. The new working class is an invention of petty bourgeois sociologists” (542).

After much arguing, Pat reduces Daman to simply wanting the union to succeed.

Then Sophia admits to Yarostan that she remembers Titus Zabran being there when she and Luisa and Sabina were released after just two days.   And that he didn’t emigrate with them because he wanted to help the rest of then get released.  [Things are coming to a head about Titus here].

She also acknowledges that she never knew that Luisa was a seductresss, but as she looked around the room she saw a group of men holding on to her every word, even if what she’s talking about is more union nonsense.

In fact, Pat is arguing with Luisa but they both come to an agreement about the union picket line: Pat wants to show up at the picket with fliers that ask why they let loudpseakers speak for them,

Shouting “That’s magnificent; it’s what I’ve always asked myself,” Luisa throws her arms around Pat and I almost fall off my chair, almost scattering your letter all over the room (545).

They finish Pat’s the leaflet in 15 minutes (and print it at Ted’ print shop) which really embarrasses Daman and his paper.  [Luisa asks Daman, “Isn’t it beautiful?  And it all took less than half an hour, for two thousand copies!  Ours took us all of two weeks! (549).]

But before it’s printed, they all head over to the print area when Tina does most of the work.  Sophia sees Tina (and quickly learns that Tina has been seeing Ted for over two years).

Finally Ted comes down and Sophia and Ted are very civil to each other .  Ted reveals that Tina helped build this place (she was always stealing things from the print jobs that she held down).

When the leaflets are done they pile into two cars and head for the picket line.  Daman has picked up an older woman who sits next to him; Sophia, Pat and Luisa climb in the back.  And so Daman and Pat argue in the car and soon enough everyone has joined in.  The woman and Pat vs Luisa and Daman.  The woman has seen a lot, she was arrested during talk of unions, but she still believes change is possible or she wouldn’t be here.  She agrees with “the kid” (Pat): “if you’ve got managers, they’re going to manage, no matter who or what they were before” (550).

When they get to the strike, it’s just people with picket signs, and every one is disappointed.  They decide to find the workers in the local hangouts: the bar and the bowling alley  Luisa and Pat go to the bar to “raise hell” while the woman and Sophia go to the bowling alley (she doesn’t know what bowling is and gives us  a slightly unbelievable account of how to bowl [apparently  you’re supposed to knock down wooden bottles at the end of a channel by rolling a large ball into them” (553)].)

Luisa and Pat come in as well, but they say they weren’t able to argue with anyone in the bar since a ball game was on the TV and everyone was watching it.  But they did have drinks and (in a line that I couldn’t disagree with more), Luisa says, “There’s nothing like a few drinks to loosen tongue and soften tempers” (553).  [Soften tempers?] And then Luisa, encouraged by Pat’s wandering eyes, invites everyone back to her house for a celebration.

Only Daman Luisa Pat and Sophia wind up going.  Pat reaches for Sophia’s hand in the back seat, and we flash forward to the present.

Sophia had stayed away from Pat for over a week, her morality kicking back in.  But she did run in to him at the council office and they went to a lecture together in which the experts are denouncing their own special fields as illegitimate, “as cut off from the rest of social life: philosophers, teachers, even medical students, though I haven’t  heard any doctors yet” (555).

[I just have to say that I can’t imagine what these professionals are saying to discredit their own professions.]

Sophia is impressed however:  “Imagine the experts themselves denouncing their own expertise as a usurpation!” (555).  Pat seems impressed that Sophia could grasp this, and that’s when it dawns on her that his attitude is totally sexist, he thinks men can be equals, but that women are not (except Tina, who has proven herself).

But before she can react, she sees Rhea Morphen at a table selling books.  Pat immediately jumped at her for peddling this stuff.  And he asks if she sells the thoughts of Adolf Hitler… “you’ve got the collected works of all the other Fuehrers” (556).

They get into a bit of a tussle, which leads to Rhea blaming Sophia for what happened to Lem (“Your stepfather Alberts and his friends tortured him and then paid him to spy on and poison his former comrades.  He turned Debbie Matthews into an alcoholic” (557)).

Continuing with the out of sequence story we see Sophia meeting Ted again for the first time in many years.  Ted is cordial, but the big surprise is Tissie, who is clean and sober and very pretty.  She is full of energy and enthusiasm.

And then Sabina takes over the tour and shows everyone about the kind of technology she’s working on (I assume she has usurped the technology lab at the university and is just exploring the existing projects?).  They include a personal vehicle that can respond to verbal commands (!).  And a hologram room!  Sabina is captivated by all of the research and offended that more isn’t going to come of it (basically the powers that be are too invested in oil to allow for this personal car–which is true).

Then Tissie takes Sabina on a tour, they walk out to the middle of a clearing with a park and a pool surrounded by a forest.  And we get the redemption of Ted!

Tissie explains that he was protecting Tina, not romancing her.  In fact, he was protecting Tina from Tissie herself, who was under orders from Seth to get Tina hooked on heroin.

Tissie explains how she and Ted met: they were both more or less homeless.  Tissie was a prostitute while Ted was stealing cars.  The both went to reform school around the same time.  She got released first, but she missed him and after he was released, she went to see him at the garage and asked if she could stay there with him.  And then she met Sabina and fell in love!

After clearing the air, Sophia and Tissie go for a swim. Tissie still wants Sophia, and even climbs on top of her, but Sophia’s still too afraid.  Nevertheless, they go skinny dipping  together and their solidarity is confirmed.

When they get back, it transpires that Pat did not have as much fun in the print shop.

The next morning, they ask Sophia is she’ll move in with Ted and the crew, but Sophia says she has to think about it.  Sabina and co, are hurt but allow her some time to process everything.  On the way home, Sophia apologizes to Ted.  He says that he is sorry too.  For everything.  But he also says that Jose might not have gotten killed if she had been there for him (which is pretty shitty thing to say).

And we flashback to Sophia and Jose in jail.  She realized that Jose was taking to heart all the books that she brought him, but that she herself wasn’t doing anything.  So, she looked into the peace movement (which Debbie and Lem had mentioned).

She went to volunteer and was given a drudge job of stuffing envelopes.  No one spoke, no one had fun, it was awful.  But she saw Art there.  And he told her about an upcoming demonstration where they would lock arms in front of a military facility.  At the demonstration, they stayed there for a while until they were arrested, and then the trucks proceeded through.

Her arrest got her fired from the fiberglass factory, so she became a full-time activist.  She wound up moving in with Art.  But she soon realized that their movement was empty slogans repeated over and over.  She stopped accompanying him to meetings.  But she continued cooking and cleaning for him.  He never acknowledged anything that she did.  Then one day she copped on to what she was doing and wrote him a note to call a maid and walked out of his life.

She eventually went back to see Jose, but she was afraid that the books she gave him were turning him into an armed guerrila.  He was shot a few days later (during a  raid of Ted’s place).

Now let’s finish up that festival that Luisa promised.  Sophia is aware that the purpose of this festival is for Luisa to declare her independence from Sophia and to conquer Daman in front of her.

When they arrive, Sophia drags Pat upstairs and begins sexing him up, but she stops before it goes too far.  He protests, and says they have to wait until after dinner.  If they can’t control their urges, how can they control others.

Pat, super pissed and sober now, starts talking to Luisa about her life as a tram driver.  Luisa tells a story that Sophia has heard many times, so she (Sophia) keeps interrupting it.

Luisa begins talking about her job back then and when Sophia argues about the union, Luisa explains that: “It was only thanks to the union that the working population was able to defeat the insurgent generals and the entire rebel army” (577).

It was on the trams that Luisa met Nachalo, who would often give the poor a free ride (which Luisa learned to do as well). It was soon after that when Luisa converted him to a union man.  He balked initially, saying that the union did fight but that the fought on their knees and begged.

When Luisa first went to Nachalo’s house she met Margarita, a street urchin of 11 who was already a pickpocket and a prostitute.  Margarita was hesitant but eventually warmed to Luisa.  And after talking, Luisa fell in love with Nachalo.

They moved in together and soon after, Sophia was born.  And then Luisa met George Alberts.  It was news to Sophia that Alberts came before she had split with Nachalo.  Sophia is shocked, and Luisa laughs saying, what’s the point in rebelling if you don’t rebel against everything?  She wonders how Sophia grew up so conventional about family and faithfulness.

As she talks about George Alberts, Luisa reveals (more to Daman than anyone else), “I’ve always been profoundly impressed, I should say moved, when a university person, a member of the intelligentsia, sacrifices the privileges available to him and devotes himself to the workers’ cause” (583).

George was knowledgeable about weapons and technologies and shared his ideas freely.   And he quickly let it be known that he loved Margarita (after Luisa had slept with him in full view of Nachalo, who was not jealous).

And then Luisa met Titus.  Titus insisted that they needed to fight at the front so he and George joined Alberts there.

Sophia has had enough and, while they are still arguing, she proceeds to physically seduce Pat in front of everyone.  But she also tried to undermine Luisa, telling Daman that she wants him to give her an orgasm right here.  Then she tells Pat to show everyone what he wanted to do upstairs.

Daman moves to leave but Luisa grabs his leg, while Sophia pushes Pat to the floor.  Pat penetrates and shouts, ” I didn’t want it to happen like this” (589).

Daman storms off, Pat storms off, Luisa grabs her things and storms off. And Sophia feels free.

COMMENTS

I am finding more and more of this story unpalatable.  And I don’t think I’ve ever screamed What the Fuck? at a story as much as this.  When I described some of these scenes to my wife, she asked me why I was still reading it.

And the answer lies in the non-crazy parts.  I have invested enough in the actual story of these two people to seriously wonder how everything will get resolved.  Will the revolution work?  Will they get together in some weird way?  Will Yarostan at least put Mirna in a nuthouse?  I simply can’t imagine how this will end.

One thing that I have noticed about the story is that a lot of it is repeated in various forms. This, of course, is the genius of the letter format.  Who can be expected to remember exactly what she wrote three of our weeks ago? So there’s bound to be some repetition (and I’m surprised there isn’t more contradiction, at least we know that the letter writers aren’t trying to obfuscate anything).

The letters also allow for the crazy way that information is presented.  It takes us almost 300 pages to learn that Ted isn’t a pedophile??!!

If I accept the premise that Perlman is trying to push buttons, to see why we believe in our morals as we do, I have to wonder if he stretched the limits of credibility.  The whole sequence with Mirna and Yara (and the explanation of Vesna’s death) is simply not believable to me.  I mean, really, that and poor Yara trying to snap her mother out of her paralysis “game”) strikes me as child abuse.  And in my world, I suspect that she might be relieved of custody of her child.

We’ll see if there’s any redemption coming before I pass judgment.