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I felt no shame in these activities, because I understood what almost no one else seemed to grasp: that there was only an infinitesimal difference, a difference so small that it barely existed except as a figment of the human imagination, between working in a tall green glass building on Park Avenue and collecting litter in a park. In fact, there may have been no difference at all.
This quote comes from Scotty’s description of his job as a janitor in New York, just before he goes to meet with Bennie in his high-rise office. Scotty’s statement here —that the difference between prestigious corporate work and menial labor is almost nonexistent —points to the idea that fate doesn’t necessarily favor one person over another. Scotty spends a lot of time by himself after his divorce. In his solitude, he puts together some very suspicious-sounding theories about the transfer of energy in the universe, and the way that society trammels people into jobs. It’s almost as though Scotty is attempting to justify his lack of artistic success to himself. This perspective diminishes the significance of Bennie’s achievements. In expressing this thought, Scotty is suggesting that his position is really not very different from anyone else’s. If, as he implies here, all human endeavors are ultimately equal in the grand scheme, then it doesn’t matter if he’s a custodian or a corporate powerhouse.
So this is it ⎯ what cost me all that time. A man who turned out to be old, a house that turned out to be empty.
This quote comes from the chapter “You (Plural).” In it, Jocelyn looks over Lou’s fancy house and realizes that she sacrificed her youth to a person who didn’t give her what he promised in return. When she arrives with Rhea to see Lou as he’s dying, Jocelyn notices how empty and stark Lou’s luxurious house feels. This observation that the echoing empty place is Lou’s reward for a lifetime of work underscores how unfair and unjust fate can seem. Jocelyn feels cheated by the trade-off between herself and Lou. She’s disappointed with the outcome of the years spent as Lou’s girlfriend and the time she lost to drug addiction. She’s quickly coming to the realization that the object of her time and effort—Lou, who’s now old, and his house, that’s now empty—was not worth all the resources she poured into being with him. She and Rhea both still feel affection for Lou, but he’s no longer the golden god he was when Jocelyn was a young, naïve teenager and he was a high-powered executive.
He remembered his mentor, Lou Kline, telling him in the nineties that rock and roll had peaked at Monterey Pop. They'd been in Lou's house in LA with its waterfalls, the pretty girls Lou always had, his car collection out front, and Bennie had looked into his idol's famous face and thought, You're finished. Nostalgia was the end - everyone knew that.
This quote, which comes from Bennie Salazar’s perspective, examines the idea of fate through the lens of the music industry’s capricious taste. In this passage Bennie describes listening to his mentor Lou talking about the “peak” of rock n’ roll music, and thinking pityingly that Lou’s career must be over. It’s not just that Bennie disagrees with Lou; it’s that hearing Lou confidently make a statement like this implies he’s become totally outdated. Bennie believes that feeling nostalgia for the old days signals the end of an era. Although it infuriates him, Bennie knows that in a sense, it doesn’t matter how good things were before: fate is indifferent to the excellence of the past, and every cultural movement always declines. Destiny’s indifference to human efforts is reflected in the way culture always moves forward, leaving behind even the most iconic figures. This perspective diminishes the importance of striving for lasting impact. It’s also Bennie’s greatest fear become manifest, as he’s terrified of becoming irrelevant himself.
