Lew's Broken Experiment

A Boy and His Dog

Follows the patriarch of the Better Business Bureau from confident architect of the breeding plan to a hobbling old man whose entire scheme collapses in a single afternoon.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Toad Behind the Desk The Toad Behind the Desk from "A Boy and His Dog". The Toad Behind the Desk The Elder in the Eyeshade The oldest of the old men, Lew, wears a green eyeshade and sleeve garters over a striped shirt.

The Toad Behind the Desk from "A Boy and His Dog". The Toad Behind the Desk The Elder in the Eyeshade The oldest of the old men, Lew, wears a green eyeshade and sleeve garters over a striped shirt.

The Toad Behind the Desk The Elder in the Eyeshade The oldest of the old men, Lew, wears a green eyeshade and sleeve garters over a striped shirt. He takes the I.D. plate, orders Vic disarmed, and receives the solo's filth with a rotting smile. He is the face of the downunder's gerontocracy. The Imperturbable Bureaucrat Lew's reactions are all administrative: he deducts, tabs, files, and instructs. To him the wasteland boy is paperwork with a pulse.

The Architect's Pitch The Architect's Pitch from "A Boy and His Dog". The Architect's Pitch The Salesman of Desperation Lew explains the breeding crisis with the practiced sorrow of a town father: thirty years down, too many…

The Architect's Pitch from "A Boy and His Dog". The Architect's Pitch The Salesman of Desperation Lew explains the breeding crisis with the practiced sorrow of a town father: thirty years down, too many…

The Architect's Pitch The Salesman of Desperation Lew explains the breeding crisis with the practiced sorrow of a town father: thirty years down, too many girls, not enough sons, and a need for certain special kind of men. He even negotiates Vic's demand for Quilla June, the community's first concession to the new stud. The Blinkered Vision What Lew cannot see is the contradiction at the heart of his plan, that a culture that hates and fears solos cannot safely import one, any more than a man can breed strength while staying entirely soft. The experiment is doomed by its own premises.

The Tolerated Degenerate The Tolerated Degenerate from "A Boy and His Dog". The Tolerated Degenerate The Dressing of the Bull Lew personally escorts Vic to the Mercantile to buy bib overalls and a shirt, trying to make the killer look…

The Tolerated Degenerate from "A Boy and His Dog". The Tolerated Degenerate The Dressing of the Bull Lew personally escorts Vic to the Mercantile to buy bib overalls and a shirt, trying to make the killer look…

The Tolerated Degenerate The Dressing of the Bull Lew personally escorts Vic to the Mercantile to buy bib overalls and a shirt, trying to make the killer look civilized. The patronage is pragmatic, a farmer grooming his stallion, but it blurs into something almost grandfatherly. The Blind Spot Lew never searches Vic for intent, only for manners. The week that Vic spends casing the air ducts and the weapons cabinet is invisible to the man who believes obedience is a matter of costume and courtesy.

The Kicked Cane The Kicked Cane from "A Boy and His Dog". The Kicked Cane The Collapse of Authority As Vic drags Quilla June out of the bedroom, Lew rises with his cane, and Vic kicks it out from under him.

The Kicked Cane from "A Boy and His Dog". The Kicked Cane The Collapse of Authority As Vic drags Quilla June out of the bedroom, Lew rises with his cane, and Vic kicks it out from under him.

The Kicked Cane The Collapse of Authority As Vic drags Quilla June out of the bedroom, Lew rises with his cane, and Vic kicks it out from under him. The old man goes down in a heap, and with him goes the entire edifice of the elders' control. The Widow's Report Vic's parting line leaves Lew and Mrs. Holmes to find the corpse and the truth. The patriarch's authority has been reduced to a pile of old man on a parlor floor.

The Grasshopper's Last March The Grasshopper's Last March from "A Boy and His Dog". The Grasshopper's Last March The Hobbling Vigilante At the head of the mob that pursues Vic and Quilla June, Lew hobbles along like a weird grasshopper, cane…

The Grasshopper's Last March from "A Boy and His Dog". The Grasshopper's Last March The Hobbling Vigilante At the head of the mob that pursues Vic and Quilla June, Lew hobbles along like a weird grasshopper, cane…

The Grasshopper's Last March The Hobbling Vigilante At the head of the mob that pursues Vic and Quilla June, Lew hobbles along like a weird grasshopper, cane swinging, dignity gone. The vigilantes are not soldiers; they are homeowners with rifles, and they fail to catch two fugitives on foot. The Experiment's End Lew's failure is absolute: his stud escaped, his sentry is destroyed, his town is shot up, and his daughter-fodder is a killer. The downunder imported a bull and got a fire that burned its own barn.

Vic's arrival at the Better Business Bureau

the same meeting at the Bureau

the acclimation week

the escape at Ira's house

the chase through Topeka's streets