a family where no one can speak except through a third party — "he thought he could somehow get…" · S6

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]