IVIV20: An interesting resemblance, 356

[Paul Nightingale]

Doc flashes back to "the acid trip that Vehi and Sortilege had put him on"
(356), which takes us back to 108-110 and, in particular, the bottom of 109:
"Doc recognised the Golden Fang. Preserved, Kamukea silently corrected him."

Doc first "regard[s] the elegantly swept yet somehow--what would you call
it, inhuman lines of the Golden Fang" on 90; a couple of pages later Sauncho
tells him the Preserved's history (92), up to its reappearance as the Golden
Fang, "including the removal of any traces of soul" (93). The schooner's
makeover is inseparable from that enjoyed (? endured?) by Burke Stodger.
Doc's insistence on the original name invokes the soul that has been lost
(and on 309 he tells Shasta he "always wanted to be" Burke). It reminds us
of: "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whom Doc had admired since he was Lew Alcindor"
(113). Or even: "Tuesday or Cheap Pizza Nite" (11). In each case the
formally accepted/legally recognised term is in conflict with an informal
alternative.

Here, the Preserved/Golden Fang takes Doc to John Garfield, whose fate puts
him as a clear alternative to Burke Stodger. On 309, when Shasta refers to
Burke's "solution" to blacklisting, Doc refers somewhat sardonically to
Garfield: "... there I go, being bitter again". Heroes should be carefully
chosen. Bigfoot might be here.