Night 12: Slice-of-Life

This one’s hardly even a chapter. Just a mere one pager. But like Snuff says, sometimes it’s nice to be domestic. And in any case, it is a good chapter in what it accomplishes in its short span. In the first place, it acts as — to my memory — the last of the really short chapters before things pick up right before the new moon. Which from a readability standpoint is good because it’s kind of like the last breath before a long dive. It tells you that things have been easy so far, there’ve been a few lulls in a row, but things aren’t going to be this slow again. But it also does something else really well: it shows the broader effect of the Game. We only see what Snuff does, which isn’t even all of what Jack does. And Jack is notably somewhat sedate for a player, since he’s an old-hand and knows what he’s doing. He isn’t sloppy. But the same doesn’t go for everyone else and it shows in the headlines. There is chaos, of the small sort. A rash of violent crime following the Game; we just don’t see it most of the time since Snuff isn’t involved. So this chapter’s a good reminder of what’s at stake.