The Light Over the Ranges, Chapter Four: Bad Vibes!

This chapter is perhaps less eventful than the previous, but we do meet some important characters for the first time and we get further into the novel's politics. First, of course, we have Merle Rideout--briefly seen from above in chapter two--and his daughter, Dahlia. We learn that Dahlia's mother ran off with a magician (and the Chums are shocked, SHOCKED! to hear about this adulterous behavior); more on this later, natch. Merle is a photographer; I'm not one hundred percent sure how this fits into the novel's overall schema, but the fact that photography employs light is not incidental. Anyway, the Rideouts don't get much attention here; that will have to wait a bit. There is one part I find funny where Dahlia runs up to check out Lindsay, who responds in bafflement: "'This cannot be,' he muttered. 'Small children hate me.'" Lindsay's kind of fun; I find myself liking him more this time.

Oh, I also just want to mention Merle's companion, a burlesque dancer named Chevrolette McAdoo. I don't believe she plays a major part in the novel, but she does mention that she performs to Saint-Saens' "Bacchanale." I wasn't an opera fan when I first read the novel, but now I am, so I know that said music--from Samson et Dalila--is indeed great.

ANYWAY. We also meet Professor Heino Vanderjuice, the Chums' adult mentor. The professor is troubled, because he has a meeting with--ominous music--Scarsdale Vibe, the arch-capitalist robber-baron villain of the piece. He is accompanied to this meeting by his...friend? rescuer? Ray Ipsow. It's actually extremely unclear what Ray's role is here; I don't think he plays much role in the later book, but again, I'm undoubtedly forgetting many huge things! Anyway, his name is a play on the Latin "re ipsa," meaning "to the thing itself" or something like that. There's probably a deeper philosophical meaning here, but we might also think about him getting to the bottom of "the thing itself" in his piquant dialogue with Scarsdale. He, Scarsdale, is talking about how when you have just so goshdarn much money you don't know what to do with it, which is notably similar to the sorts of grotesqueries you hear from our modern capitalists.

"Here's this huge mountain of wealth unspent, piling up higher every day, and dear oh dear, whatever's a businessman to do with it all, you see."

"Hell, send it to me," Ray Ipsow put in. "Or even to somebody who really needs it, for there's sure enough of those."

"That's not the way it works," said Scarsdale Vibe."

"So we always hear the plutocracy complaining."

"Out of a belief, surely fathomable, that merely to need a sum is not to deserve it."

"Except that in these times, 'need' arises directly from criminal acts of the rich, so it 'deserves' whatever amount of money will atone for it. Fathomable enough for you sir?"

"You are a socialist, sir."

"As anyone not insulated by wealth from the cares of the day is obliged to be. Sir." (32)

Yeah! These banal tautologies really are the bread and butter of plutocrats: why does it have to be this way? Because this is the way it is. Can't argue with that, on account of it not being an argument. I know this is far from an original insight, but capitalism works by normalizing itself and convincing people that things could never be otherwise. I am trying to sort out the nexus between socialism and anarchism on which the book operates. I must admit, I have not thought as deeply as I ought about these issues. Probably rereading this book makes for good mental exercise.

I should note in passing that we also meet Vibe's aide-de-camp, Foley Walker, in this chapter. Seriously, should I be avoiding spoilers here? Should I assume that this blog might ever have some number of readers who don't know the book? Well, let's just say he plays a pivotal role, and also that--as we'll see later--he and Vibe are another example of doubling.

Anyway, Vibe is concerned with what Nikola Tesla is doing, and it's a sad fact that it's hard to think of Tesla without thinking of Elon Musk, and even beyond that just dudes who have their identity wrapped up in being a "nerd." Still, Tesla messed around with all kind of light and magnetism-related things that clearly relate to this book's preoccupations. He's concerned specifically with Tesla's proposed "World System," which would have provided free energy to the world, which naturally would upset capitalism. "If such a thing is produced," Vibes notes, "it will mean the end of the world, not just 'as we know' it but as anyone knows it" (33-34). This is definitely true, and makes one think of the famous maxim by Fredric Jameson that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." So Vibe wants Vanderjuice to put a stop to this with an opposing system that will stop Tesla's invention in its tracks (note again the duality: free energy vs. anti-free-energy). No word on whether this actually works (Vanderjuice's conscience is stricken), but you'll note that we don't currently have infinite free energy, so...

That's all for this chapter. I know I've just barely started, but I am really digging getting back into this book so far. Great stuff!