the Commander

chapter 25

  • presented as being meek n mild-mannered, not villainous

    • ‘

  • “this is not recreation, even for the Commander. this is serious business. the Commander, too, is doing his duty” (ch16, pg 101)

  • “for him, I must remember, I am only a whim” (ch25, pg164)

  • “sometimes he turns on his short-wave radio, displaying before me a minute or two of Radio Free America, to show me he can” (ch32, pg216)

  • “all that filth about universal daycare” (ch32, pg 217)

  • “it must amuse him, this fake subservience” (ch32, pg217)

  • “there are things he wants to prove to me, gifts he wants to bestow, services he wants to render, tendernesses he wants to inspire” (ch32, pg217)

  • “sometimes he becomes querulous, at other times, philosophical; or he wishes to explain things, justify himself” (ch32, pg217)

  • “what he wants is intimacy, but I can’t give him that” (ch32, pg218)

    • perhaps previously the Comm had an incel sort of mindset, and so now in a regime where he is at an afvantegeous position, he feels he has a right to genuine affection

  • “better never means better for everyone, he says. it always mean worse, for some” (ch32, pg218)

  • “we’ve given them more than we’ve taken away, said the Commander” (ch34, pg227)

  • “he wishes to diminish things, myself included” (ch36, pg237)

  • “they feel hard, unwinking, like the shells of beetles: black, polished, inscrutable. they seem to have nothing to do with feet” (ch36, pg241)

  • “…and as he talks his spine straightens imperceptibly, his chest expands, his voice assumes more and more the sprightliness and jocularity of youth” (ch37, pg244)

  • “perhaps he’s reached that state of intoxication which power is said to inspire, the state in which you believe you are indispensable and can therefore do anything” (ch37, pg244)

  • “ ‘Enjoying yourself?’ he says. He wants me to. This after all is a treat” (ch37, pg249)

ao5:

  • “Certainly, the Commander’s Latin games are cruder and more childish than those of Luke, but both men wield their language prowess so as to keep women in the position of the unempowered” (Miner)

  • “the ‘past’ called up by the Commander, the past that brings delight into his voice, is one in which women are on display for men, and are dependent upon men” (Miner)