She hangs on the western wall...

[doktor at primenet.com]

Marisa writes:

>          I am about finished with V (60 pages to go or so) and I am
>          trying to "put it all together."  Obviously a lot of it has
>          to do with inanimateness, but I can't quite find Pynchon's
>          message...
>
>          I'm sure y'all have read it a number of times, so if you
>          have more of an idea than I do, I would appreciate it.

Finishing V. and putting it all together are two very different things, as
you are about to discover.  Those who disparage the novel have written that
it contains only one idea, really, which, once grasped need never trouble
the reader again, namely, the progression of the animate toward the
inanimate being the central trek of modern history.

That's an important theme, of course.  But those who champion V., myself
included, find much more there.  Rather than disgorge myself of all that
now, I'd rather wait til you finish the book; and even then, I might turn
it around and ask you what _you_ find.  Write back after "that quiet June
day" and let us know.

--Jimmy