TRTR(I.7) Inherent Vice

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut wrote:
> Yeah, so 4 times?...

Inherent vice is something that everybody is stuck with -
the paint will flake off, ruining the beauty of the painting, and
there's not even the bright side of an insurance payment, like there
is when it's stolen or burned up.

With a little help from Wyatt, when the inherent vice causes the
original painting to flake off, Shazam!  there's an even better
painting underneath.  All is not lost, in fact it's better than ever!
Oh happy vice, to quote a similar idea in a different field...(and
certainly other data suggesting the notion applies also to religion
are easy to find in the book)

It seems wiser to gauge Gaddis's attitude not so much as
"all art (and religion) is fraudulent anyway and these fellows just excel at it"

but rather something like
"you've got to watch out for this type of thing, if you're looking for
real art (or miracles)"

with a codicil of, hey, if there is enough connoisseurship of
counterfeits to support a monthly magazine, then couldn't the efforts
of Wyatt also be sincerely collectible?