IV: Chapter 19 - page 343

[Mark Kohut]

i think Pynchon saves Coy for almost religious, New Testament, JC reasons: "what you do for the least of them, etc. ", or whatever it is.

I think Coy is 'saved' as one human exemplar of a lost preterite.....Doc's meaning in his life.....

And for the child, the family---that later-works hopefulness---in TRP's oeuvre. 

--- On Mon, 1/4/10, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: IV: Chapter 19 - page 343
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 12:19 PM
> The mention of the obscure ship also
> echoes back to COL49 in the scene where Mike Fallopian's
> describing the origins of the Peter Pinguid Society -- in
> this case a Russian ship was involved.
> 
> Wondering if there's any significance between the Portola
> club and Sportello.  By virtue of even sitting in this
> power-bastion, negotiating, is Doc passing through some
> private portal -- in effect becoming an auxiliary member of
> the Golden Fang by doing business with them, even if it's to
> save a life?  Also, I've never understood Doc's
> personal zealotry in protecting Coy and his family. 
> Stealing heroin from and negotiating with the GF seems an
> excessively dangerous and risky undertaking to protect
> someone Doc barely knows, and a pretty morally compromised
> person at that.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> >
> >Doc is as struck [in his way] by this painting of the
> commencement of  
> >the Portola Expidition as Oedipa was struck by Varo's
> indices of  
> >tears. Again and again throughout the story our stony
> hero asks  
> >questions about what might have been if only . . .
> >
> >http://tinyurl.com/ydeg347
> >
> >    The Portola expedition, led by
> Gaspar de Portolà from July 14,
> >     1769 to January 24, 1770,
> was the first known recorded
> >    attempt by Spain to explore Alta
> California by land.[1] The
> >    purpose of the expedition was to
> secure bases in Upper
> >    California before the Russians.[2]
> The plan was to establish a
> >    base in the Port of Monterey (now
> Monterey, California) as
> >    described by Sebastián Vizcaíno.
> The expedition consisted of
> >    64 men in all, and approximately 200
> horses and mules. The
> >    expedition started at the Presidio
> of San Diego on July 14 and
> >    returned on January 24, 1770 —
> failing to recognize Monterey
> >    Bay.
> >
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portola_expedition
> >
>