Talking Dutch – Chapter 7, Act 4, Strip 11

Well, that’s some authentic delirium gibberish.
No, seriously, it is. As you might have noticed, the Elder’s confused rambling is an excerpt from the last words of dying mobster Dutch Schultz. I wondered for a moment if that could be considered “too soon”…but it’s been 84 years, and I’m not positive that Dutch Schultz was the kind of person who’s deserving of a particularly high level of pious considerations concerning their passing. And the truth is, I really couldn’t have written it better myself – it’s actually surprisingly difficult (at least for me) to write something random and disjointed (when you’re trying to – it’s surprisingly easy when you don’t. ._. ).

As for Si’ri’s remarks in the last panel…yeah, there really are some people who believe that Dutch wasted his final moments on this world crafting a complicated coded message to enable random people to locate the resting place of his safe with $7 million in it, if only they could figure it out from his stream-of-consciousness babbling. That would be a bit of a stretch in a Charlie Chan novel, let alone real life…

But rest assured, in this context here there’s no secret message to glean…the only message, really, is that our friends have no help to expect from the Elder in his current state. How much help he ever was, even in the prime of his mental facilities, can be a matter for discussion, but in this state he’s definitely no help at all. It’s sometimes hard to tell, with people like him, but in this case it’s beyond plain that he’s not just willfully trying to be sibyllic.

More on Mo…Mother is the best bet and don’t let Satan draw you too fast.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.