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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1816 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 5, 2025

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At the end of the day, though, it's a circular story with a lot of repetition, and the things that made it so transgressive and compelling aren't really that unique nowadays.

I think it's exactly as, if not more, transgressive than it was at the time. The central argument of the story is "Who is the manly man and who is the cuckold?" And I don't think we have any better of an answer now than we had then.

I don't think there is a single manly man or cuckold in the story. The only way to win the game with Brett is not to play, but to go fishing instead.

There are more Bretts in today's society than ever before, and they have even more freedom and power. I know a dozen of them. That's what I mean about the relative level of transgression being lower than when the book was written.

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