Bianca as Shadowchild

[Meg Larson]

----------
> From: Charles_Sligh at BAYLOR.EDU
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Bianca as Shadowchild
> Date: Thursday, March 06, 1997 5:54 AM
> 
> Bernard Duyfhuizen has done one of the best explorations of "picturing"
Bianca.  
> Bernard Duyfhuizen has done one of the best explorations of "picturing" 
> Bianca.His essay is called "A Suspension Forever at the Hinge of Doubt: 
The 
> Reader-Trap of Bianca in _GR_."  Duyfhuizen examines the "age" problem, 
> "fetishization," and gendered reading. Fine piece of writing/reading.
> 
> This can be accessed over the internet:  go to _Postmodern Culture_ at
UVA--this 
> essay appeared in the Sept. 1991 issue.

Well, kids, there goes the cyber-neighborhood!  I just tried to access this
issue of PMC, only to find out that it is now under the control of
something called Project Muse; the only issue free online is the current
one; the rest are available through the above project, for a fee, of
course.
> 
> I especially send this out to DYB as a parting "gift"--come back and talk

> anytime--if you choose, you could be "conditionally" "'here'" but "once
or twice 
> removed"!!  A ghost on the list--already a legend.
> 
She'll be back, and maybe she can enlighten us about this article; I
couldn't get any subsription info from Project Muse. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 06 Mar 1997 07:41:44 -0800 (PST) redbug at hyperarts.com (RedBug)
wrote:
> 
> >Hey Joe:
> >
> >As John Krafft pointed out to me a long time ago, Bianca is 16 or 17.
> >Slothrop just *thinks* (*hopes*) she's 11 or 12.
> >
> >Bianca is conceived during the filming of Alpdrucken ("I think
> >Bianca is [Schlepzig's] child. She was conceived while we were filming
> >this." - p.395)
> >
> >Ilse was conceived after Franz Poekler saw Alpdrucken ("he knew that had
> >to be the night, Alpdrucken night, that Ilse was conceived." -
> >p.397)
> >
> >Leni was pregnant with Ilse when she was seeing Peter Sachsa, e.g. "Ilse
is
> >awake, and crying. [...] They ought to try Peter after all. He'll have
> >milk." (p.163); and Sachsa is killed during a street action in 1930
("Taken
> >forcibly over in 1930 by a blow from a police truncheon [...]" - p.152)
> >
> >Placing Bianca's conception, say, 6 months to a year before Ilse's
> >(depending on how long it took for Alpdrucken to reach the theatres and
how
> >long it took Franz Poekler to go see it), Bianca's birth  would have
been
> >in 1928 or 1929.
> >
> >Slothrop meets Bianca aboard the Anubis in 1945.
> >
> >Thus Bianca must be 16 or 17. Correct?
> >
> >RedBug
> >
> >On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, Joe Varo wrote:
> >
> >> In my attempt to get through with my re-reading of GR before M&D comes
out
> >> (and hopefully re-read Vineland before that time also), the other day
I
> >> got to the Anubis episode and the Slothrop-Bianca sex scene.
> >> 
> >> The whole scene makes me shudder and Bianca brings to mind a music
video
> >> from many years ago.  I think it was by a band called The Art of Noise
and
> >> the video features this little girl, definitely pre-teen, but perhaps
> >> younger than Bianca's supposed 11-12.  She is dressed up in a leather
or
> >> vinyl mini dress and has gaudy purple and green (or was it magenta and
> >> green) make-up on.  All through the video she is smashing up musical
> >> instruments along in (if I recall) a railroad yard.
> >> 
> >> I always found this video rather disturbing.  Anyone else remember it?
> >> Anyone else ever see Bianca like this?  If not, how does everyone
picture
> >> Bianca?
> >> 
> >> Joe
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >
> >
> 
> 
>