V.

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     "It was moving into deep summer time in Nueva York, the worst time of 
     the year.  Time for rumbles in the park and a lot of kids getting 
     killed; time for tempers to get frayed, marriages to break up, all 
     homicidal and chaotic impulses, frozen inside for the winter, to thaw 
     now and come to the surface, and glitter out of the pores of your 
     face....What was there inside for deep summer in Nueva York to melt?  
     What would happen when it did?"  (Harper Perennial, p.292)
     
     Actually, it's been quite a mild and pleasant summer here, so far.  As 
     a matter of coincidence, it's August in Chapter 10, it's August in the 
     real Nueva York and, well, I suppose it's August everywhere else, too. 
      Hope there are a few of you left in (cyber)town as we enter the 
     penultimate round of V. discussions:  Chapters 10 - 13.  
     
     Chapter 10.  McClintic Sphere moves to center stage, introducing the 
     concept of "flipflop."  Given the phantasmagoria of flipping out that 
     we have witnessed in Chapter 9, what relevance does this concept hold 
     at this juncture?  Also, while I'm thinking about it, what parallels 
     have been drawn between Foppl's Siege Party and the goings on of the 
     WSC, in this chap. and chap. 12?
     
     Chapter 11.  "The Street" is revisited in this elegiac chapter, this 
     time by Fausto Maijstral:  "You know the street I mean, child.  The 
     street of the 20th Century, at whose far end or turning-we hope-is 
     some sense of home or safety.  But no guarantees.  A street we are put 
     at the wrong end of, for reasons best known to the agents who put us 
     there.  If there are agents.  But a street we must walk."  (HP, 
     p324-325)  Can we make some comments about Benny Profane's Street in 
     light of this?
     
     There are So Many important moments and ideas in this sad and 
     beautiful chapter, anyone care to pick one of 'em up?  [To wit:  The 
     love affair of Fausto and Elena, the Bad Priest, Modernist Poetry and 
     decadence, a-and (most significantly?), what Fausto calls "life's 
     single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever 
     admit to in a lifetime and stay sane."  (HP, p. 320-321)]
     
     Chapter 12.  Benny Profane's schlemeilhood has a thorough going-over 
     and McClintic Sphere's "keep cool but care" creates the coda to the 
     chapter as various things fall apart.  Paola is revealed as Stencil's 
     fellow quester.  Thoughts about this chapter?
     
     Chapter 13.  "V. by this time was a remarkably scattered concept."  
     (HP, p. 389)  Indeed.  What is the significance of Stencil and 
     Profane's theft from Eigenvalue's office?  Comments about the close of 
     this chapter?
     
     Chris