Okay Osiris, I re-listened to that first meeting between Burt and Scratch. You are correct: Burt does escalate the situation by being more aggressive and threatening then he probably needs to in that situation. Scratch does the very same thing. She is every bit as aggressive and threatening as Burt.

So I agree with you that Burt escalated the situation a bit more than necessary because of his ultra macho behavior. I do not agree that this necessarily makes him at fault for all of the further aggressions directed towards the Tower folk by the Mallers.

So help me out, will you? I may have lost your central argument somewhere in the long string of posts... what is your main point? Are you arguing that the Tower folk are every bit as "evil" as the Mallers, the only difference being the perspective of the story? Is that it?