Nine - Developments

Intriguing developments. Brett and Cohn apparently had quite the saucy fling up in San Sebastian. or maybe it's down in San Sebastian. Or neither. Up and down have nothing to do with cardinal directions. Nevermind. Anyway, yes, Brett had an affair with Cohn, and now Jake knows about it as well. However, he does not let on that this even remotely bugs him. So, given that we already know Jake never lets on about his true feelings, I think it's safe to assume that he is extremely peeved. Understandable, to say the least. However, this little fling is probably going to be quite different from all those other ones, simply because this one involved Cohn. I doubt that Cohn, due to his old-school values, will be able to just let his saucy fling in San Sebastian simply just be a fling. He's going to try and pursue Brett, most likely, which is sure to lead to more hilarious developments. And by hilarious I mean dramatic and tragic. Oh, one more thing: Jake and Bill don't like Catholics (although I'm about 98% sure that Jake is a Catholic). I think there's probably a very fantastic reason for this. The best I've really got so far is that they're jealous. See, all religious people have an aim, some aspiration or goal in life, something to look forward to, and something to shoot for. The members of the Lost Generation do not. So in reality, Bill and Jake are extremely jealous of this deep-seated feeling of purpose that the Catholics have, but they themselves lack. Bill let's us know his true feelings with snippy remarks like "It's enough to make a man join the Klan" (p. 93), but I doubt he's really all that upset about eating late. Instead, I think he just feels jealous and threatened by the Catholics' sense of tangible purpose.

This is Mr. Smith. He'll tell you all about purpose. And then stab you in the solar plexus.