V. as a recurring character

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Mon, 8 May 1995, David Fullagar wrote:
> I think this is a reference to the page between the contents and
> chapter one (of the Picador, Pan Books, London, 1975 edition) that has
> the following:
> 
>                         \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
> 
>                           \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
> 
>                             \/\/\/\/\/\/\/
> 
>                               \/\/\/\/\/
> 
>                                \/\/\/\/
> 
>                                 \/\/\/
> 
>                                  \/\/
> 
>                                   \/ o
> 
> printed on it.  (Each "\/" is really just a "V", but I can't get the
> centering right with just a "V", and the "o" is a period.)
> 
> I noticed this wasn't in the US paperback that a friend was reading.
> 
> -- Dave

As far as I can remember, also the 1963 hardcover edition that I saw in
one of the municipal libraries of Helsinki (no, I did not steal it) has
got those small v's forming a big V on one of the first pages. (That's 
how I started reading _V._ in the first place: one summer in the 80s I 
worked as stevedore in Helsinki port. It was casual work. Sometimes you 
had 16-hour working days, loading and unloading sacks of 100-150 lbs etc. 
But quite as often: nothing. When I did not have the energy to roam 
around Helsinki (and life in Helsinki during the summer can be quite 
exciting for (at least) young people; the winter is the opposite) I went
to the library. It was there that I came across this terrific novel, 
which attracted me instantaneously, not the least because of all those 
sailors, ports, that coastal life.)     

Heikki