V. Reading

[Andrew Dinn]

I wrote:

> Profane needs some cool as a damper on the reinforcing yoyo
> flicks of fate which would otherwise serve to increase the amplitude
> of his simple harmonic motion. 

Teen Age Riot replied:

> Hmm, I see Profane as a system LOSING energy, rather than spiraling out 
> of control.  The yoyo rides back in forth with a pendulum's frequency, 
> taking Benny along for the ride, but it is slowing down, settling on a 
> focus point, Rachel Owlglass.  I read Profane's leaving for Malta in some 
> ways as a long overdue act of agency, to break himself out of this 
> predetermined periodic motion, to postpone his entropic "heat death".

> Stencil is also afraid of the inevitable, the location of V.  But is V. 
> an actual force pulling him through time and space, or is Stencil just so 
> intent on avoiding Benny's yo-yo of inaction that he's making up this 
> game for himself, inventing the rules as they go along, so that it will 
> never be forced to cycle and will never draw to a close?  

I should have said `flicks of fate' which maintain rather than
increase Benny's yoyoing. I have not been rereading so I cannot
legitimately disagree with your reading but here, for what it is
worth, is a reading my partial recall suggests. Are women not the
agents of those flicks of fate which fire Benny's periodic motions.
Does he not spend his time running up and down the east coast to get
away from women?  the repellent force increasing with each repeated
approach? Whereas with Stencil it's the other way round - he's
approaching a woman only very carefully, almost as if he is stalking
her, the attraction becoming stronger with each revelation which
brings him closer to the heart of the mystery. And as the action
develops doesn't Benny linger longer around Rachel and then Josefina
as he reaches pericheir (to remint a prior coinage) the repulsive
forces clearly decreasing whereas Stencil begins to circle and even
move away as, thanks to his paranoia, attraction turns to repulsion.

> What is it about this settling point that's so terrible?

Fear of castration?


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.