Line in Vineland on "Unspeakable"

[J Tracy]

Freud? Maybe as a general reference to all that was buried with recent unspeakable acts like Vietnam or the assassinations that inspired Thomas Merton’s pointed  use of the term. Buried but living on in a people numbed by tubal addictions but unreconciled to their wounded condition.  I do think the sex metaphor fits right in with Takeshi’s earlier remarks like "do you want to bite your tongue or should I do it for you? or even "He cocked his eye” toward DL. The idea of an actual submarine is silly. There is no vessel, or body of water for a vessel. But there is a more serious aspect of the Unspeakable as spy from the subconscious. Both Takeshi and the Thanatoids, represented by Ortho Bob who was killed in Vietnam, are victims of major culture and ideological wars with the implication that some kind of redemption is possible and deeply needed,  a karmic readjustment, an escape from death of the soul. Sexual arousal here implies the desire for life itself. 

The whole scene is easily glossed past, but the mention of Vietnam acts like a hook to grab a serious reader’s attention and I  sense the use of Unspeakable here is an intentional reference to Merton’s use.

The thanatoid village is no more literal than the submarine or the footprint of Godzilla. But it is a powerful terrifying metaphor for something as real as tv ( communication media) as an instument of state  power  (1984) e seem to be staring at the peculiar footprint of dead  or somnolent bodies located somewhere between Gilligan’s Island  and Miami Vice, Vietnam and El Salvador.