Back to the past....riffing on THE PRESERVED

[Joseph Tracy]

Probing thoughts. Yes, I think this stuff, right here is where the  
central political metaphor meets the human soul. Whether moving  
beyond our reach in the waves of the future or anchored in poetic  
condensation. Preservation is about the the deep values, the  
treasures. All that is freely given to us in life.The Golden Fang is  
about the acquisition of wealth and power. The vessels that  carry  
these things are both local and interdimensional. I agree with Mike  
and the wooden Nickel that this is what is talking to Pynchon in an  
argument about the precariousness of Liberty, about who owns this  
particular  ship, and a question about whether "ownership"  is the  
pornographic desolation of the thing owned, the thing desired.  Is  
liberty something we own or something we ride like a wave.   Are our  
treasures stashes of dope, boxes of paper with pictures of  dead  
presidents, something we hide from the state , something the state  
hides from us? Charley Manson? Real estate? Sex with Marilyn Monroe?   
Something you extract with torture, protect with drones, vote for,  
pay taxes for, kill the wicked witch of the west for, pimp for, suck  
cock for, lick pussy for, kill the owner of the restaurant for?  Is  
it something that can be stolen?   Does the state keep us free? Did  
the state steal its freedom from  the people who used to live here,  
or do Americans have so much that they  just hand it out like  
chocolate bars and smallpox blankets and condoms?
If not for the captain and his fearless crew the Minnow would be  
lost. Sorry Charlie we don't want Tunas with good taste;  we want  
tunas that taste good.

Wave your mini-flag. It's a post 9-11, post modern, post poster, post  
toasty world.




On Jan 23, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Ian Livingston wrote:

> The sea, as image, symbol, refers to the unconscious, yes? It is the
> Mother (Mare, La Mer) of everything, of life, yes? of thought,
> consciousness. It is chaos, from whence all things issue into the
> realm where reasoned order can be imposed, and it reclaims all things
> in the end. One of the first and most deeply rooted of all our
> archetypal symbols, it resonates deeply with the N. European psyche,
> if not among all cultures.
>
> Is what is Preserved also that which can be said to have an  
> Inherent Vice?
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 4:42 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>  
> wrote:
>> Specultions on the concept, The Preserved within TRP's fiction
>>
>> 1) goes back deep in maritime law.
>>      1A) back before and, mostly, outside the legal rise aand  
>> creations of nation states.
>> fromBritannica Concise Encyclopediaalso called admiralty law, or  
>> admiralty,
>> One early compilation of maritime regulations is the 6th-century  
>> Digest of Justinian. Roman maritime law and the 13th-century  
>> Consolat de Mar (“Consulate of the Sea”) both brought temporary  
>> uniformity of maritime law to the Mediterranean, but nationalism  
>> led many countries to develop their own maritime codes. Maritime  
>> law deals mainly with the eventualities of loss of a ship (e.g.,  
>> through collision) or cargo, with insurance and liability relating  
>> to those eventualities, and with collision compensation and  
>> salvage rights. There has been an increasing tendency ... (100 of  
>> 6271 words)
>>
>> A ship named THE PRESERVED might be thought to have a cargo of  
>> what, human values?,---cargo that had soul since that was what,  
>> twice, p. 90, it was said to have lost--- preserved from the past?  
>> From before nation-states and modern wars between them? Fighting  
>> over the territory of each nation, whereas the sea was........open  
>> to all?
>>
>> .....we come from the sea.....Pynchon loves the water.....and some  
>> values associated with it, yes?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>        1A) Sauncho had a piece of a class action suit against its  
>> cargo, we learned in this chapter
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> "liber enim librum aperit."