IVIV20: They both knew, 356-359

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut  wrote:

> Or For Interpretation (my preference):
>
> Let's take "The Preserved". What is Pynchon intending is being preserved; should have been preserved?
>

playing with the notion, the name of Preserved came about from its
survival of an "explosion in a Canadian port."

toggle that capsule description, pull out a few stops, mess with it -
"a war in a British colony"
the American Revolution...

but anyway...

the devout who survived the American Revolution, remembering the grace
of their continuance,
built some sense of gratitude and humility into (I keep wanting to
broaden the ship to "ship of state"
- it just seems so apposite!) the American Enterprise, and its
documents speak of freedom and liberty and justice...

the country was young then with God on its side, in the words of Bob Dylan
bright was the spirit in many a way, as Steppenwolf said in "Monster"

and then at some point there was a revisioning, repurposing,
retooling, a la Stupendica in AtD,
which reflects Eisenhower's statement about each weapon that's made
represents a theft from peaceful production...

For instance, the way the steep hills of Doc's town appear almost as
flatlands when viewed from
out on the water

(a shrinkage similar to the scale of the map that Cyprian gets to use
in _Against the Day_)

- just as things that, considered "qua" themselves, are screeching
injustices, such as napalm or white phosphorus,
things that ought to be deal-breakers for gosh sakes - "oh, if that's
going to be required, we'll simply have to find another way" -
 when viewed from the Oval Office while pursuing the Great Game look
like simply means to an end...

(that "steep hill" that Doc's car finds challenging equates to one's
personal morality, when
it's one's own choice - am I going to kill that person, umm no that's
bad - unable to charge up the grade, but it looks like
nothing much at all when you're out on the water, or when you're doing
things in the interest of national security,
or - as Doc has found out - in pursuance of your case...)

So, I'm suggesting, that the name "Preserved" is given to the ship so
its owners and those who fare forth in it
remember that it has been preserved, and remember God's mercy in the
performance of their own missions

and the renaming as "Golden Fang" reflects a decky-dance which is all
too common -
reminiscent of the passage in AtD where they talk about how a
pilgrimage becomes a crusade
(or words to that effect) when one decides to bring weapons along

or that passage in M&D where there's a huge religious revival and
people are genuinely moved and begin
to "change their lives", but after awhile another tendency takes hold
and they begin to forget...

I suggest that the name Preserved seems to have come from a repentant
and grateful impulse
and that somebody really meant to start doing things differently

(like the Alan Alda character in "Grand Canyon" who after his
near-death experience starts making plans
to produce inspirational movies but his backers' inertia pulls him
back down into slimy exploitative violence-fests...)

This is all rather impressionistic and not rigorous.
However, those are some of my strong impressions about "Preserved/Golden Fang"