V--2nd how about that ending, eh?

[Michael Bailey]

 Mark Kohut wrote:
> Well, I'm gonna hold out for some shade of my darker meaning re Benny & Brenda.
> Paola, whom Benny took to Malta, is (all of) those positive associations re the
> future.
> She still embodies living Malta, a different future from the Wasteland that is.
>

Paola with her miraculous medal and her decision to honor her vows, to
try to redeem Pappy Hod -

> Benny, who learned nothing, is the dead end of historic America and Brenda
> offered
> some mindless pleasure as well as doom.
>

there's certainly some evidence for that viewpoint.

but, considering Paola's link in the narrative chain -
at least one of the sailors now knows he has someone waiting for him,
unlike, say, Foppl...

and this will probably shape his behavior; and his example inspire the
others in his corps; which will lead to a kinder and gentler American
military presence, not the sjambok of Foppl but the old soft shoe of
Stencil pere ("goin' 'ome tonight"), especially on Malta - (colonized
by its own request)

and such a moral rearmament, starting with Paola's decision, could at
some point reach even Benny ("no one was ever going to take the
trouble to save you, old fellow" - GR) - if he hasn't learned a
goddamned thing, perhaps he has learned or may someday learn some
blessed things, he's not roving or rollicking or yoyoing alone or with
a pack but instead the fadeout shot before the epilogue here is one of
those "lovers walking" montages...

anyway, that's the case I want to make, not ignoring all the terrible
tendencies and veritable perils, but simply accentuating the positive



-- 
"The general agreement is that language should be a kind of honey.  I
like it to be a kind of speed." - Michael Moorcock