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 "God! How many are there supposed to be?"

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What number of wives is the most shocking to a monogamist? Two would probably be regular shocking. Then their shock would definitely increase to find out the person had three wives. But would the shock continue to grow larger with four or more wives? Or would it max out at three? Because two would feel typical and then if you heard "three wives," you'd have a momentary spike of adrenalin where you think, "Oh! I would have simply guessed two!" But if you heard "four wives," my guess is the spike of adrenalin would be the same as "three wives," meaning you're simply shocked the polygamist has more than two.

In other words, we'd all react like Lew just reacted. If Troth had said, "Go live with your other wife," he'd be all, "I'm a polygamist! Yeesh!" But she says, "Go live with one of your other wives," and his reaction is simply, "More than two?! Yeesh!" I suppose there'd be a flattening of effect in the shock value right up until about 8 or 9 where there'd be a significant increase because it's now become so outlandish. But then I'd guess it would be diminishing returns from there on out. Until maybe triple digits because adding a new column of numbers is a significant marker.

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 "I don't care. Go back to one of your other wives."

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After all the mystery, this lays out the sin a little bit too obviously. Which is why it makes me think Lew Basnight has been convicted by his community of every sin the gossips could think of. So he's a sodomite and a gambler and a tippler of alcoholic beverages and a polygamist and an atheist and any other thing you could be in 1893 which would make the neighbors raise their eyebrows and become green with envy that you were brave enough to buck social convention and be your own person. Which, of course, you'd have to be punished for because how dare you find some sense of personal freedom and liberty without consequence!

Anyway, we know at least one rumor is that Lew is a polygamist. I have a feeling Lew's "sin" is different for every person, being the most offensive thing to each of them personally. So his wife believes he has other wives. His gay co-worker, Wensleydale, believes Lew is a sodomite. Women in intimidating hats probably think he's a rake and a roustabout. Oriental therapists believe he's a hallucination. None of this yet explains how Lew Basnight found himself in the detective business though!

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 All through their long discussion they had been walking, walkers in the urban unmappable, and had reached a remote and unfamiliar part of the city—in fact, an enormous district whose existence neither, till now, had even suspected.

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This is like a one sentence distillation of Chapter Three of Gravity's Rainbow, "In the Zone." The landscape becomes an analogy of the mental state of the person/people traversing it. It also sounds like an elevator pitch for a Nick Hornby novel.

This highlights my main problem in college. I feel like those three sentences are enough and the people interested in this topic would get it. But my professor would invariably send the paper back with the middle line underlined and a big red "EXPLAIN" scrawled across the margin. And I'd think, "Who are you, Professor Dumb? Explain that!" And then I'd refuse to explain because I was fine with getting a C grade.

But I guess if I had to explain because I doubt the ability of other people to understand the most simple observations, I'd probably say that the dissolution of a long time loving relationship feels like wandering into an enormous district heretofore unknown to either participant. The world, as a couple, had been mapped out in a very rigid and well-defined way. But now they were "walkers in the urban unmappable," meaning they were in a space within civilization (urban) unaccounted for by anybody up until that moment. A break-up is unthinkable because if you're thinking of breaking up, you're already broken up. In a situation where both parties are seemingly taken by surprise (Lew by not knowing anything about the reason for the break up and Troth upended by rumor, speculation, and gossip), the drama of the break-up is wild virgin jungle being hacked through by the two of them.

Now see? That explanation also takes care of the whole Nick Hornby elevator pitch part! As for the Gravity's Rainbow comparison, if you've read it, you get it. If you haven't, how the fuck am I going to explain it in one blog post when it takes Pynchon himself four hundred pages to do it?!

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 "Where'll I live, then?"

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This isn't the most romantic question to ask when your wife is breaking up with you but I get it. It's an important variable to consider in this equation! I'm sure if the Non-Certified Spouse broke up with me, I'd ask, at some point in the termination interview, "How am I going to get my cable hooked up in my new place?"

My high school best friend was more romantic than Lew when I went off to college: "What'll I do without you?" I mean, put it back in your pants, Paul! I'll be home for Thanksgiving!

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 "If I told you, I would have to hear it once again, and once has already been more than enough."

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Oh no! Poor Troth's delicate sensibilities! Having to voice aloud the supposed sin of her husband is practically too much to bear! How dare Lew ask her to engage in a reasonable discussion of it? And why not say it out loud yet again since it's already screaming right there in your brain anyway! Just say it, you jerk! SAY IT ALREADY!

You know what? Troth is the real monster! Lew's better off without the sort of person who will refuse to have a rational discussion by both believing what other people say over their loved one and also refusing to even bring up the matter directly!

Oh! My temperature is rising! I'm really getting involved in this relationship! It's like The Real Housewives of 1893 Downstate Illinois!

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 "But what are they saying I did? I swear, Troth, I can't remember."

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What are they saying Lew did, but more importantly, why the hell does Troth believe them?! She obviously doesn't have first hand experience of Lew's "sin" or else she wouldn't have rushed off to stop him only to be convinced of his guilt by the steady clicking of the train along the tracks.

Although this does still read like a woman feeling spurned after realizing, after all the rumor and her reassessing of the evidence of her life, that her husband is gay.

I suppose the whole point of this section is to get the reader to speculate like crazy and to eventually accept what everybody else has also accepted: Lew Basnight is a terribly depraved man! I'm practically siding with Troth and Wensleydale myself!

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 "Never more Lewis, do you understand, never under the same roof, ever."

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For Lew's sake, it probably would have been better if Troth had come to this realization before chasing him down in Chicago and explaining it to his face. He tried to be the bigger man and just run off without any drama but he found himself chased down by an ex-coworker and now a soon-to-be ex-wife anyway! They couldn't even allow him the dignity of fleeing with his tail between his legs. They had to chase after him so they could hit him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper as well.

I'm still unsure if this whole Lew Basnight ordeal is some kind of satirical take on a genre of writing. It just sounds so much like a Victorian era drama. Maybe that's the whole point because Lew's life is a Victorian era drama! I mean, did you not read this in an overly dramatic breathy staccato?