The Rebel Soldiers
So I'm digging on The Last Exit To Brooklyn. It's strange, the experimental style giving way to various misgivings on the part of understanding, but then again it's Selby who kind of got a raw deal by the legions of kids professing the merits of Requiem for a Dream then doing coke themselves.
But whatever, Last Exit. At this point I have only read the intro, wherein Alex's diner is examined along with the punk types who hang around by it. The major point of the intro is the point where the punks fight these rebel (read: confederate) soldiers and decidedly beat them. There is an incredible harsh quality to this; it is not a street fight, it is a man being almost tortured on a street corner. Frank, the leader of the punks, is doing some real damage before a cop breaks the whole thing up.
Now, here's where the point of the whole story comes in: the punks brutalized this dude, and no one cares. They care, but only for themselves. Everyone who saw anything is saying the rebel said something about Frank's lady friend (who Frank had beaten earlier) and beating the rebel was the only way to take care of things. So everyone supports Frank, the cops send the rebel back to the military base, that's that. An MP tries to speak up for the rebel, but the cop straight up accuses him of being a lawyer. By the time the MP tries to say anything else, the rebels are falling back to base.
But dig that, right, think about it. The rebels were being jackasses, true, but it's no reason to near kill a man. This is obvious though; violence is bad, etc, etc. The real what the hell moment is when no one says anything. Not one man or woman will defend another human being. No one cares, no one wants to be that guy; it's like what Irving says about the draft, that people will only act out against something if it affects them. This is the opposite, no one wants to get killed so they say nothing and let someone else die; no one wanted to go to Vietnam and so everyone protested. Even though I would like to believe in a higher moral order than that, it seems to be a fair statement that encompasses events that happen far too often. Read the modern parts of A Prayer for Owen Meany for a detailed list of most of those events.
The worst part of the whole thing is that this too seems obvious. Our culture is filled with cynicism and self-preservation that of course no one would stand up for the rebel; he stood for opposite political goals, he stood for repression, people would claim such things as the reasons for not defending him but of course these are not the true reasons. No one wants to have his kidneys kicked in. So no one would stand up for him because what's the point, it'll be two men quivering on the ground as opposed to one. We are so used to thinking this way that we have no guilt over not standing up for the men either, we just didn't want to die. And it's true, its very true, but there is just something inherently wrong with this, that our sense of self is so high we can't stand up for another.
And the lawyer thing. To accuse someone of being someone who knows and enforces the law as a professional is a hell of a thing. It mocks the law, it mocks the entire court system, saying the retribution is valid anywhere but in the court room. So the idea of being a lawyer is scorned; these men were brought up in lawless areas, the laws to them are what are keeping their friends from their families. So a lawyer is evil, even to an officer of the law.
Brooklyn is hell man.
And I was going to go into the absurdity of the snitches get stitches campaign, but I got work in ten minutes.
I'm digging Selby though.
But whatever, Last Exit. At this point I have only read the intro, wherein Alex's diner is examined along with the punk types who hang around by it. The major point of the intro is the point where the punks fight these rebel (read: confederate) soldiers and decidedly beat them. There is an incredible harsh quality to this; it is not a street fight, it is a man being almost tortured on a street corner. Frank, the leader of the punks, is doing some real damage before a cop breaks the whole thing up.
Now, here's where the point of the whole story comes in: the punks brutalized this dude, and no one cares. They care, but only for themselves. Everyone who saw anything is saying the rebel said something about Frank's lady friend (who Frank had beaten earlier) and beating the rebel was the only way to take care of things. So everyone supports Frank, the cops send the rebel back to the military base, that's that. An MP tries to speak up for the rebel, but the cop straight up accuses him of being a lawyer. By the time the MP tries to say anything else, the rebels are falling back to base.
But dig that, right, think about it. The rebels were being jackasses, true, but it's no reason to near kill a man. This is obvious though; violence is bad, etc, etc. The real what the hell moment is when no one says anything. Not one man or woman will defend another human being. No one cares, no one wants to be that guy; it's like what Irving says about the draft, that people will only act out against something if it affects them. This is the opposite, no one wants to get killed so they say nothing and let someone else die; no one wanted to go to Vietnam and so everyone protested. Even though I would like to believe in a higher moral order than that, it seems to be a fair statement that encompasses events that happen far too often. Read the modern parts of A Prayer for Owen Meany for a detailed list of most of those events.
The worst part of the whole thing is that this too seems obvious. Our culture is filled with cynicism and self-preservation that of course no one would stand up for the rebel; he stood for opposite political goals, he stood for repression, people would claim such things as the reasons for not defending him but of course these are not the true reasons. No one wants to have his kidneys kicked in. So no one would stand up for him because what's the point, it'll be two men quivering on the ground as opposed to one. We are so used to thinking this way that we have no guilt over not standing up for the men either, we just didn't want to die. And it's true, its very true, but there is just something inherently wrong with this, that our sense of self is so high we can't stand up for another.
And the lawyer thing. To accuse someone of being someone who knows and enforces the law as a professional is a hell of a thing. It mocks the law, it mocks the entire court system, saying the retribution is valid anywhere but in the court room. So the idea of being a lawyer is scorned; these men were brought up in lawless areas, the laws to them are what are keeping their friends from their families. So a lawyer is evil, even to an officer of the law.
Brooklyn is hell man.
And I was going to go into the absurdity of the snitches get stitches campaign, but I got work in ten minutes.
I'm digging Selby though.