43 thoughts on “Chapter 5: Lit, page 90.”

  1. Thing is – she’s right. When there’s a dig, a niche, a tiny chunk taken out – it becomes a dawning realization that “this can be done”. And then you got Blue laws all over again…

    1. Yeah – sort of like how a chip in your car’s windshield will spread to a crack, and so on.

  2. I really want to see Orpha and John go head to head in an inspiring revolutionary speech competition.

  3. I cannot decide who I love more. Or who I would want to be in a room with less.

    (Okay, yes, definitely Orpha.)

    1. Orpha sounds like she’d be a fun drunk – plus whoring stories.

      Barny seems like a weeper. Get a few shots in and it’s just crying.

      1. At first I thought of Barney as an angry drunk but he’s angry sober so maybe he’d be a quiet, mellow drunk.

  4. Ah, there’s the difference. Orpha is being a bitch because she takes her job representing the Doves seriously, and perceives a threat. Zebulon, meanwhile, just sees the matter as less paperwork for him and doesn’t care about the long-term consequences. Pity he’s elected, he just lost points with me.

    1. I see it more as Zebulon thinking tactically while Orpha is thinking strategically. Wether her strategy is the right one, I’m not sure. Personally I think she’d be better off trying to turn Barney into an ally but given their respective personalities, especially Orpha’s, that ain’t gonna happen.

  5. Guys, I know she’s making good points. But the only reason it would be perceived as a defeat is if she fights it like she’s doing and loses. Certainly some people would celebrate a whore house closing down, but those people believed that anyway. Zebulon is also kind of right, if they lose ground they weren’t defending anyhow, there might be a few news spots or articles about what a great thing has happened, but reclamation can only possibly attack whore houses that are ABANDONED.
    Her enemies will still only say ‘almost eighty brothels’ anyhow.
    The correct way to approach it that she hasn’t seen: Multi-use! Hooker therapy for the homeless with aquaponics in the cellar.

    1. You underestimate the opportunism of politicians, especially those that feign moral superiority. Whether they let it be taken or fight for it, the loss of the Oarlock provides inertia for moral guardian movements against the Doves. I’m guessing that Orpha is old enough to have experienced such politicial conflict personally, while carefree Zebulon is too young to have been burdened by the troubles of serious conflict.

      1. But you’ll admit that if she fights hard and loses, that will be more of a rallying cry for her enemies than the closing of one already abandoned brothel. And her plan for taking it back so far only seems to involve her ranks getting arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace.

        1. Which works for her, because overly-aggressive political forces alienate the moderate populace. As for her plan, I think it’s more of her accidentally setting off an overzealous support base by voicing suspicions of Reclamation’s goals.

    2. Reclamation isn’t “attacking whorehouses”. So far the overt hostility has all been from the Doves side. Reclamation just saw a building that wasn’t being used and figured they could put it to better use.

  6. Interesting Bit: Orpha and Barnabas are the only characters we’ve met who have actual, tangible clout and authority in the city. Everyone else are just Some Guys.

  7. God, where to BEGIN…

    1) This can’t be about location. Anyone with an itch to scratch will travel as far as they need to to get what they want.

    2) Zeb is viewing this as a business decision, while Orpha is viewing this as a threat to her feudal domain.
    Zeb: “The place was a cancer, so it’s being cut out before it can spread.”
    Orpha: “But it’s MY cancer and I don’t want anyone else to have it, or else they’ll find some way to benefit from it!”

    3) I might’ve actually bought the whole “champions” outlook if she hadn’t preceded that with “It is IMPUDENT and I SHALL be accomodated.” Protecting the Doves? More like protecting the cows on her ranch so she can continue to get milk and beef out of them.

    (BTW, Zeb’s reaction text? PRICELESS. BEYOND PRICELESS.)

    1. 1 – it isn’t (just) about location, no – it’s also about power. There is a significant difference between going to a lone prostitute with no real protection and going to one that is supported by an organization, particularly when the law is regularly brought to bear against that lone prostitute.

      3 – I can see her believing that AND saying those things.

      1. Yes, Orpha genuinely believes in the movement. She also thinks that the movement requires her to be in charge. And maybe it does. We haven’t seen enough yet.

  8. If she wasn’t so self-righteous, she ought to deal with Barnabas and friends: publicly make a show of donating it to their cause. Then she can hopefully get on their side, at least publically. If it’s not already too late and her protest is too far out in the open. However, she seems way too caught up in ownership to be willing to give away anything.

    This also brings up a thought: Could the “Cook” attack on the Reclamation rally have actually been prostitutes using an urban legend to their advantage?

    1. The real pity here is that Reclamation’s takeover of the Circassian and the response of the Doves were immediately confrontational. And now things have progressed to where cooperation is almost impossible.

      How much better things would have been if a cooler head like Zebulon had spoken directly to Barney John, explained to him the necessity of keeping the zoning permitting prostitution, and then offered to work with Reclamation to rebuild the Circassian into a brothel that serves the common good. Prostitution could be just another of the self sustaining industries of the building along with the wind farm on the roof and the tilapia ponds in the basement. Heck, that’s probably even someone’s fetish. I don’t see Barney John as being against prostitution in any way, and this sounds like just the sort of unique reconstruction project where a man like him could really get his hands (no offense) dirty.

      But then that sort of plot probably wouldn’t very exciting (which may explain why the same sort of unnecessarily confrontational fiascoes keep happening in the real world as well). So instead we have Dinah going head to head with Orpha. What was that about an unstoppable force and an immovable object again?…

      1. Barney may not go for that. Now, if the Doves were to use their insights and (admittedly limited) political clout to help Reclamation get properties the Doves don’t need in exchange for Reclamation not trying to take any of the 79, that would work for the both of them. May not work for Ms. Godswill, as her agenda involves alienating all potential enemies of Reclamation with lawsuits, but she’ll probably relax if the cooperation is covert enough that it doesn’t impact Reclamation’s public image.

        1. Oh I think Barney John would totally go for that. Any man that ugly no doubt has nothing but respect and gratitude for the Third Oldest Profession.

          Dinah Godswill, however, is a different story entirely. She will no doubt do anything in her power to preserve the public image of Reclamation from any association with “immorality” (or anything else the public might be led to look down upon). And unfortunately, while Barney John may be the leader of Reclamation, Dinah Godswill most definitely is the one who RUNS it.

  9. Her tone ans subject matter aside, I have to agree with Orpah. The American government has been doing this to its people for decades now. Seatbelt and helmet laws come to mind. No one really disputes anymore about seat belts and motorcycle helmets being the better, safer choice and saving thousands of lives each year. But a generation ago it was just that. A choice. I myself hav been able to make career choices that put my life in danger on a daily basis in service to the same people who want to levy a fine on me over a strip of nylon webbing being where they think I should put it. Taxes on cigarettes are another example. I am a lifelong non-smoker, but I resent laws that infinge on people’s choices. Taxes on tobacco have doubles, and in some places tripled the cost of a pack over the last 20 years. Then in the last few years, laws about where people can light up have gotten more stringent. These strictures won’t go away. Our kids will simply be born into a society with fewer choices. The American people have forgotten that they are the employer, and the government are our employees. Formal government may not be involved in what;s going on in Doves vs Reclamation here, but it’s a lovely illustration for one of my personal real world hot buttons. Anyway, sorry to rant, folks, and if you’re still with me at this end of the comment, thanks for tolerating me :D

    1. Just a note: motorcycle helmets aren’t precisely comparable to seatbelts, as they only protect one person. I’m told a beltless person in a crashing car turns an already dangerous situation into game of skull-pinball.

      1. Yup. I’ve worked as an EMT (in NYC, no less). I hear people give lame excuses ‘I don’t want to get trapped by the seatbelt’ and other such nonsense. I’ve had quite a few deaths w/out belts, a couple dozen ejections (usually through the windshield), too many serious injuries to count. The ONLY MVA death that was belted in had been shot after the accident by the person he hit. (Ah, Bushwick)

    2. Oh, I totally agree, and I was brought up in the click-it-or-ticket generation. My attitude is, if a fully grown adult really believes seat belts and helmets are dangerous or restrictive or whatever, LET THEM. Natural selection for a new century. Same goes for smoking; if you don’t like it, stand upwind and quit whining (and I also do not smoke). It will be interesting to watch the anti-smoking crowd slowly turn into the anti-Snus crowd, exposing them for the control freaks they really are.

      1. I say that you should be exempt from seatbelt and helmet laws if you have DNR on file along with explicit permission to harvest your organs.

  10. I’m not sure if Orpha’s reaction (“A HUNT will begin!”) isn’t overreaction; Oarlock appears to be a *tourist attraction* in TAZ, so the citizenry can’t be *that* moralistic. Who’s Orpha worried is going to get behind a move to shut down the Doves – out-of-state lobbyists from Utah?

    Then again, if RL is anything to judge, out-of-state lobbyists from Utah can do that sort of thing (see Proposition 8).

    1. This isn’t a matter of morals, but of politics red in tooth and claw.

      The Doves are a top political power in Templar. And there are no doubt other political powers who see any opportunity of lessening of the Doves as a chance to expand their own position in the resulting power vacuum. Morality has nothing to do with it, except maybe being color the power grab is painted with.

  11. Second panel Zebulon, will you marry me?

    I can’t get myself to agree with Orpha. I get that she’s trying to protect her “turf”, but she isn’t even using it, and Barney only wants to do good with it. I understand that all she owns is threatened by him wanting the space, but by refusing to cooperate and being this dramatic, she’s only making it worse for herself.

    1. I second that. If the place was so important to her, why’d she let it deteriorate into a falling-down ruin? I don’t think she’s willing to put in the cash needed to spruce it up, but also doesn’t anyone else wanting to make it their own. Although, by Barney’s reactions last time we saw him, I’m half expecting him to spruce it up and turn it over to the Doves as a gesture of goodwill. (I still think his mom or sister or similar works/worked for the doves. *g*)

  12. Btw, when Orpha refers to Los Soldados Mexicanos (aka the Mexican Army) what exactly is she referring to? Could it be the Mexican War or, given the alternate nature of this worlds history, maybe a group of Mexicans who hung on after the Mexican War, like the [i]pieds noir[/i] in Algeria.

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