The Mayor of Paltryville

[Tiran O'Saurus]

The Evidence

This is something I realized while reading TMM. There is a sort of shadow plot in it, like the figurine seller in TCC. It is about a character who is first mentioned in TWW's Kind Editor letter: the Mayor of Paltryville. He is first mentioned in TWW, and is described as needing to be convinced by Lemony to let him into Orwell's office. Indeed, him and Orwell are the only characters mentioned in that letter. Not even Sir, the guardian, is. In TMM proper, Charles mentions that the Mayor of Paltryville donated "his" book, the Paltryville Constitution. Now, it being "his" book is strange. Paltryville has been around since at least FU13SI, where it was well established enough to have its local optometrist have a poor reputation. Paltryville is old. But what exactly is in that book? Well, at the end of TMM Phil reads it, and promptly informs Sir that what the lumbermill is doing is illegal. 

My Conclusion

The Mayor of Paltryville learns what Sir and Lucky Smells are doing. Not wanting to publicly shut it down (perhaps Sir has some sort of influence over the Paltryville government), he instead creates a revised version of the Paltryville Constitution, which in its original form dates back to before ATWQ. This version brings especial attention to how one can't be paid in coupons. Phil, upon reading this, promptly quits his job at Lucky Smells and joins VFD, which explains how he ends up on the Queequeg. Thoughts on my theory?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

This is really interesting. Much of the subliminal theme of TMM is about how capitalist companies exploit workers and the environment to the fullest, even if it is against the law. On the other hand, the workers themselves often allow this exploitation because they have not been informed about their rights. I like to think that for this theme to be valid, the laws were always there, and it was only because the employees did not inform themselves that they were deceived. It is difficult to understand how politics works in asoueland, but I have already said that I believe that asoueland would be something like city-kingdoms-United States of America, that is, a federation in which there are independent cities, independent states, independent kingdoms, but at the same time they have a small constitution that is valid throughout the country, allowing for the existence of a supreme court. If P.Ville has a mayor, I don't think he was the one who actually created the city's constitution. This would be an accumulation of the functions of the Executive Power and the Legislative Power. I think that in general, mayors do not accumulate such functions. By definition, the mayor belongs to the executive branch. On the other hand, P.Ville does not seem to have a city council to be able to create laws. At least not anymore. P.Ville must have been abandoned by most of the people who once lived in it (as SBTS) and the constitution that was there must come from that time.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

You are right, the mayor wouldn't have written the actual laws. That's why I suggested that the constitution described as "his book" just had something like an introduction that emphasized that particular law.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

Ah, now I understand! In this case, it is as if the mayor had provided a special edition of the city's constitution, or even a constitution commented on by the mayor. That makes perfect sense. Something that at the same time had the constitution written by the old legislators and also highlighted laws that Sr was not complying with.