a family where no one can speak except through a third party · S6
Jim later told Joelle that he simply didn't know how to speak with either of his undamaged sons without their mother's presence and mediation.
Context
The Incandenza communicative condition stated three ways in a single stretch: the father cannot address his own sons without the mother standing between them as translator; the son, weeping in a cab, cannot reach the father without her either; and Orin's whole scheme for Joelle is to install her as a fresh conduit to Himself, a three-way bond because a two-way one is impossible. Every line in this family has to bounce off an intermediary to arrive, which is why a dinner or a phone call or a marriage keeps turning into a relay through someone else. [sweep · shared-ground family-hamlet fathers-sons]