Pages 177 - 197, Part of Madness, Blindness, Astonishments of the Heart:: Behold the Oncoming Train

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What happened?  We meet Joseph McClatchy, Scarecrow Joe, a pleasant young boy genius/hackmaster with a streak of rebellion, who decides to "Stick it to the Man" (do kids really still say that?  Mine sure don't.) by forming a protest at the edge of the barrier at 2:00 tomorrow.  And he's just the well-regarded cool young geek who can do it.  Unfortunately, the Rev. Batshit Crazy Coggins is having a Prayer Meeting at the selfsame place at the selfsame time with all his religious nutbars.  And when word of the impending colission of events reaches Romeo Burpee (God, that name!), the second richest man and biggest capitalist in town, what does he do?  Hell, he decides to throw a tent party at the site (and get rid of a lot of his second-rate and factory second merchandise at the same time).  This cannot be a good thing.  But it will be fun.

Man, SK is thinking big on this one.   We're rounding up on 200 pages into this baby -- close to 20% in -- and he's still introducing new characters.  Which makes one wonder how long some of these vividly drawn also-rans are going to last.  *sniff* do I smell early-onset bloodbath?  *sniff*?