Thanks for the effective analysis. But I have to confess, I don't quite follow the story, I mean just on the literal level of actions and sequences.
Maybe what I'm missing is what was involved in "So I squared off with Barry. " I was reading that as a general or summary statement that will be cashed in with specifics shortly. Like, how, in what way did the narrator square off with Barry? By speaking up? By physically fighting? By something physical, like standing in the way but not actually attacking.
Or I may just not get the idiom in the way you mean. That's if "square off with" *means* one of those in your style of English and I'm just missing the beat.
The other narrative question I was left with was when the incident of Barry getting set on fire took place. I read this as a flashback. But is it possible this was the fighting-back on the narrator's part, and it means you *set him on fire*?? I guess not, because it says "He set himself on fire".
So if that wasn't the combat, was Barry already burned/scarred at the time of the stray dog confrontation? Is the idea that Barry was even more intimidating because of it, and thus tougher to face down?
Again, thanks for some striking images and thought.
Agree with Mitch Marks that your story is difficult to follow as a linear narrative, but your larger point that we all know deplorables like Barry is crystal clear. While the MSM waste time trying to psychoanalyze these voters, Dems need to focus on increasing our turnout rather than converting these lost causes. Hope you were able to feed that dog...
Cynically, I guess the one thing I'd emphasize is the propensity of 'deplorables' to discount their capacity for evil via a capacity for laziness.
Which, in a way, brings the question of 'economic anxiety' back in through the back door: to what extent does economic hardship -- economic beleaguerment? -- force these folks off the couch... Or, more sinister, to what extent does innate laziness raise the question of who financed the conversion of lumpenproles into thugs and stormtroops?
Thanks for the effective analysis. But I have to confess, I don't quite follow the story, I mean just on the literal level of actions and sequences.
Maybe what I'm missing is what was involved in "So I squared off with Barry. " I was reading that as a general or summary statement that will be cashed in with specifics shortly. Like, how, in what way did the narrator square off with Barry? By speaking up? By physically fighting? By something physical, like standing in the way but not actually attacking.
Or I may just not get the idiom in the way you mean. That's if "square off with" *means* one of those in your style of English and I'm just missing the beat.
The other narrative question I was left with was when the incident of Barry getting set on fire took place. I read this as a flashback. But is it possible this was the fighting-back on the narrator's part, and it means you *set him on fire*?? I guess not, because it says "He set himself on fire".
So if that wasn't the combat, was Barry already burned/scarred at the time of the stray dog confrontation? Is the idea that Barry was even more intimidating because of it, and thus tougher to face down?
Again, thanks for some striking images and thought.
Agree with Mitch Marks that your story is difficult to follow as a linear narrative, but your larger point that we all know deplorables like Barry is crystal clear. While the MSM waste time trying to psychoanalyze these voters, Dems need to focus on increasing our turnout rather than converting these lost causes. Hope you were able to feed that dog...
so did he beat the crap out of you or not?
Cynically, I guess the one thing I'd emphasize is the propensity of 'deplorables' to discount their capacity for evil via a capacity for laziness.
Which, in a way, brings the question of 'economic anxiety' back in through the back door: to what extent does economic hardship -- economic beleaguerment? -- force these folks off the couch... Or, more sinister, to what extent does innate laziness raise the question of who financed the conversion of lumpenproles into thugs and stormtroops?