Notkin spills — "who though not exactly the psychic…"
who though not exactly the psychic sea’s steadiest keel had been in many respects an acute reader and critic of film, and would have been able to distinguish the real filmic McCoy from pathetic cries veiled as film no matter how wildly his nautical compass was spinning around, on its tether, and would in all probability have destroyed the Master Print of the failed piece of art, the same way he’d reportedly destroyed the first four or five failed attempts at the same piece, which pieces had admittedly featured actresses of lesser mystique and allure
Context
Notkin's theory of the Master's fate runs through JOI's competence as a critic of his own work: the film was mere "thinly veiled cries" (Joelle's verdict, relayed), JOI would have recognized that, therefore he "would in all probability have destroyed the Master Print" — as he'd "reportedly destroyed the first four or five failed attempts", the phantom Infinite Jests I–IV(V) with lesser actresses. Filmography-as-evidence: the whole U.S.O.U.S. hunt is being told it's chasing a print its maker's own aesthetic standards predict he burned.