Pluto too early in V (fwd)

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

Well. . .  notice that here, Mondaugen is "in search of this generator," 
some central power from which he can continue his "sferic research" 
(237).  Apparently, Fopply kept an auxialliary generator that Mondaugen 
thought to use "to modify what power he needed, either to operate the 
equipment directly or to recharge the batteries" (237).  He makes a 
journey to the underworld, 'into the house and down" to search (237).  He 
finds first, a portrait of Vera Meroving and _her_ lieutenant,"_she_ 
striking at his chest with what appeared to be a small riding crop" 
(obviously in the dominant role) (238).  He hears the s-m song of HEdwig 
Vogelsang, a nubile automaton who states that her "purpose on earth is to 
tantalize and send raving the race of man" (239).

If, as Judith Chambers suggests and I believe, _V._ is a central female 
figure, representative of the once-worshipped goddess/poetic faculty 
that, in essence, _is_ the central generator, then this section reveals 
yet another perversion of that role, brought on in the company of male 
conquest by way of sadism and colonialistic impulses.  And Mondaugen 
finds, in his journey to the underworld (associated with learning of the 
world above), the truth (of Vheissu) of V. and the continual degredation 
of Her.  Additionally, as Mondaugen ascends the treadmill , the "prime 
impulse" that operates the mechanism that drives the "heavens," then we 
see the cultural shift from goddess worship to male dominance all the 
more clearly.  Inspired to dance, "he _seized_ her round the waist" and 
dances her down a hallway that alludes to many colonial acts, past or 
present, that have encouraged further rape of the goddess/poetic 
faculty/unmitigated earth, etc.  They pass, "stabbbed at ten-yard 
intervals [like a playing field for male aggression] down its length by 
_yellow daggers of the African sun, hung with nostalgic landscapes of a 
Rhine valley that never existed, portraits of Prussian officers who'd 
died long before Caprivi (some even before Bismark). . ." (239).  And 
they end at the center of the universe, where Hedwig "continued to dance, 
having chosen Venus as her partner; as Mondaugen dashed along his own 
geodesic, following in the footsteps of a generation of slaves" (239).
That Hedwig continues to dance, free of the mechanism designed by Foppl 
and chosen as the path Mondaugen picks (the one that controls the 
"heavens") is notable.  She maintains her power despite the fact that 
Mondaugen tries to run the system.  She chooses Venus as her partner, 
maintaing her mysterious power and, by implication, the poetic faculty 
that cannot be controlled by man's machinations.  Yet, he continues to 
try, always resulting in pathetic display, which we see in the Bondel 
Mondaugen encounters further below, more evidence of that desire to 
dominate, particularly the people of the earth that have resisted 
entrapment within systems of European dominion.  

You're wondering how this is relative to the question of a Pluto that 
appears too early?  Really, throughout this passage, there are 
questionalbe time-shifts, too many to mention.  One appears in the 
passage above, concerning the Prussian officers.  But generally speaking, 
this entire section seems SHROUDED in obfuscation--just as a 
male-generated history has traditionally SHROUDED our knowledge of a time 
when V. was more than an ornament, put here to "tantalize and send raving 
the race of man" (239).  Here, in Foppl's underworld, in this "parody of 
space," time and space are defined in terms of androcentric control, and 
thus the future orientation of the universe is revealed.

Then again, it may just be a mistake.


Bonnie Lenore Surfus
On Mon, 7 Nov 1994, 
David Hosford wrote:

> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sun, 6 Nov 1994 21:30:58 -0500 (EST)
> From: David Hosford <dhosford at acpub.duke.edu>
> To: Mailing List Pynchon <pynchon-l at sfu.ca>
> Subject: too early Pluto in V
> 
> 	When Mondaugen is at Foppl's siege party in 1922
> [chp. 9, V, pp. 229-279 of Perennial Library's 1986 pb version],
> he observes 9 planets in Foppl's planetarium [p. 239].
> However, the real-life Clyde Tombaugh did not make the photographic
> comparisons that led to Pluto's discovery until February,
> 1930.
> 	Given Pynchon's superb descriptions and detailed
> histories, is this a purposeful error? A misremembering
> by a much later Mondaugen? Or a mistake?  Any ideas out
> there in the Zone?
> 			-- David Hosford 
> 
>