IVIV (11) p. 163-164

[Michael Bailey]

 John Bailey  wrote:
> Great stuff Clement,

yes, thanks!


> The Preserved disappeared in the 50s "somewhere between San Pedro and
> Papeete [French Polynesia]". It reappeared a couple of years later off
> Cuba as The Golden Fang. (p 92-3)
>
> (I *really* don't get how it could be missing for several years yet be
> "instantly, as if by occult forces, relocated to the other side of the
> planet". It was missing. This makes no sense at all.)
>

that stood out as incongruent to me also.  If it's missing for a couple
years and then shows up, that's plenty of time to sail around in either
direction, isn't it?

There's a saying or something about how it's subversive to have a long memory
and this may be what is referred to, an implied comment from a writer wearing
his "historical novelist" hat - the difference between current events
and history...

just as "oh surprise, there are these wicked Talibans in Afghanistan"
who just cropped up overnight seemingly, ignores the genesis of that movement
in US covert intervention; or the curious disingenuousness of citing Saddam's
aggression when the US sold him the weapons and supported him against Iran,
and even hinted at a blind eye towards invading Kuwait; or the sad refrain about
Islamic fundamentalism after Western upsets and topplings of secular regimes...

or, oh, shock shock horror horror the auto industry is having trouble
sustaining growth after filling the country with more cars than people...

Norman Mailer (in _Of a Fire on the Moon_) noted a good metaphor that
Spiro Agnew used:
"the strobe light of public attention" - (hey, remember strobe lights,
trippy huh?)

Or for that matter, the memorable "fireworks" speech ("Think, bloviators...")
in _Against the Day_ where the point seems to be that the flame can be applied
and the trajectory set, but there is a quiet period before the fireworks,
which we can spend in anticipation, or killing time, or preparing...

Doc's growth as a person and as a PI involves his development from
the "grasshopper" who's surprised by the news, into the "ant"
who tucks signs and signals away, builds neural networks, practices his
marksmanship...not completely discarding his befogged status, but learning
to navigate despite it, and even to sometimes use it - and the underestimation
it provokes - to his advantage.