IVIV, more lost innocence. Is IV a Paradise Lost? p.38

[Mark Kohut]

Could ne'er be said better, imho. 

And a key, key theme, imho. It is the best explanation for the Coy, Hope & especially Amethyst characters, I say.

A...and, Doc's compromises in the other cases are like all of ours in living/working in the society, maybe I'd argue. 

--- On Mon, 9/7/09, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: IVIV, more lost innocence. Is IV a Paradise Lost? p.38
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, September 7, 2009, 12:12 PM
> 
> Me:
>  
> > It seems Doc shares some of Stray's ideas. Doc may not
> be an angel,
> > and he may have his flaws, but his decision to save
> Coy and give
> > Amethyst her dad back does seem to be just such a
> moment of uncompensated
> > kindness. It would certainly be difficult to argue
> that Doc in this
> > particular instance acts out of anything but pure
> kindness, sentimental
> > PI that he is.
>  
> alice:
>  
> > It's actually fairly easy to argue since the text
> makes the argument
> > for us: the best place to start is p.314 but there are
> several other
> > scenes that expose Doc's delussions of some higher
> calling or
> > vocation. Who is he working for if he working for
> himslef? It doesn't
> > matter. What is he working for?
>  
> Hold it just a second! Doc works many different cases, and
> in some of 
> the cases I would certainly agree with Shasta that Doc in
> some sense 
> works for 'them' (the criminals); as when he returns mad
> Japonica to
> her dad, for instance. Looking back on his career, Doc does
> indeed find
> a "piss-poor record, not too different after all, he
> guessed, from the
> interests Coy had been working for." But the case of Coy is
> different 
> than Doc's usual cases; it's a more personal case, and you
> can't just 
> lump it together with those other cases that have Doc
> questioning whom 
> he really works for. 
>  
> The usual bad guys don't really benefit from Doc's
> interference here. 
> Those who really benefit are Coy, Hope and Amethyst. This
> may be construed
> as a facile, sentimental and schmaltzy subplot, but still:
> Coy, Hope and 
> Amethyst are the ones who benefit in this particular
> instance.
>  
> I would still say that Doc is acting out of sentimental
> motives here, and 
> I think the tone in the scenes with innocent Amethyst
> underscores this.
>  
> If I were to point to a less noble motive, it would be that
> by saving Coy,
> Doc also tries to save himself. It could be construed as
> his attempt at 
> distancing himself vicariously from those forces he
> otherwise has a hard 
> time distancing himself from: "You figure this is why I'm
> going crazy trying
> to figure a way to help Coy cut loose of these people?"
> (314)
>  
> The important thing is that Doc is not really helping
> "these people" in this
> case. He is helping Coy, probably out of some stew of
> motives, where I would
> argue that kindness and concern for Amethyst are very
> important ingredients.
> And the only 'selfish' motive I can possibly see in this is
> a desire to also
> save himself, to amend that piss-poor record.
>  
>  
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