V. (Ch 3) Victoria as a gnostic symbol

[jill]

Just food for thought, I thought I'd add this, a finding in Gnostic Gospels
/Elaine Pagels: that seems to me, parallels the character of Victoria, or
more broadly, the V-ness character whom Stencil is seeking to answer his
perceived questions of why humanity is the way it is, or human nature. It
concerns one particular example of the various feminine universal creative
voices in the texts found at Nag Hammadi, which you probably already are
aware of, but for the rest who didn't know, are sources that we know to
study the Gnostics.

p.54 "Wisdom, then bears several connotations in gnostic sources. Besides
being the "first universal creator," who brings forth all creatures, she
also enlightens human beings and makes them wise..."
(the last voice discussed at this point is as follows)

"Even more remarkable is the gnostic poem called the 'Thunder, Perfect
Mind.' This text contains a revelation spoken by a feminine power.

      'I am the first and the last...I am the honored one and the scorned
one... I am the whore, and the holy one... I am the wife and the virgin...I
am (the mother) and the daughter... I am she whose wedding is great, and I
have not taken a husband. I am knowlege and ignorance. I am shameless; I am
ashamed...  I am strenghth, and I am fear... I am foolish, and I am wise...
I am godless, and I am one whose God is great.'

...One text, having previously described the divine Source as a 'bisexual
Power', goes on to say that 'what came into being from that Power--that is,
humanity, being one--is discovered to be two: a male-female being that
bears the female within it...."

-jill

jbor wrote:
> 
> That's another striking moment in the narrative, when Victoria turns
> impatiently and says: "Mr Porpentine, ... Do finish with your cripple. Give
> him his shilling and come. It's late." 76.25 And poor Max defies the "code"
> of the shyster and turns and walks away without accepting the five quid
> which Porpentine has actually held out to him. It's all the more
> excruciating because I don't think he has even managed to save face by
> refusing the money either, because no-one else (not even Stency, nor indeed
> the reader) seems to care about him for an instant after his departure.
> 
> Victoria's remark is callous rather than funny, or 'gay', and I think it is
> also interesting in that it reinforces the hierchachy between Victoria (and
> Goodfellow) and Porpentine which will result in Porpy's sacrifice for his
> partner. She commands him, and he obeys. Also there is enormous irony in the
> fact that Max has spent the entire evening with them and still hasn't
> figured out what's going on between this group of masqueraders, and that
> Victoria, who he had pegged as simply a "green" girl, has been able to spot
> him coming from a mile off and here dismisses him with such disdain. Her
> acuity in terms of the situation which has developed around her is hinted at
> like this a couple of times, and her gaucheness is perhaps simply a mask
> too.
> 
> Max is dismissed as a "cripple", dumped into the same class as a mere Arab
> beggar-boy, marked as 'preterite' to Victoria's own sense of being 'Elect'.
> Victoria by this one comment is portrayed as queen of the Baedeker-world: it
> is she, the consummate tourist and self-centred voluptuary, rather than the
> political agents who court her, who is most antipathetic to the 'cause' of
> the natives and residents of Alexandria and Cairo, and who by her shallow
> self-centredness and thoughtless irresponsibility will do the most to damage
> the people and situations she comes into contact with. Max's self-respect is
> thoroughly shattered. And, by the end of the section, Porpy will be dead:
> his tragic demise also the result of cast-off remarks made by Victoria. For
> if Victoria does indeed comprehend what the political intrigue is all about,
> what's at stake for the four men who have become her consorts on this Grand
> Tour (Gf & Porpy, B-S & Lepsius), she cares less about that and their fates
> than she does about her own selfish lust for Goodfellow's goodfellow.
> 
> Like Hanne and some of the others, Max has been able to sense that something
> is not quite as it seems with these people, and it is these vague intuitions
> which are conveyed to the reader (thru' Stencil), and which sets up the
> "mystery" of V for Stencil and so for us.
> 
> best
> 
> ----------
> >From: "Paul Mackin" <pmackin at clark.net>
> >To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Re: VV(5) Porpentine--embarassed, bashful
> >Date: Thu, Nov 30, 2000, 2:26 AM
> >
> 
> >  Old  Max himself is full
> > or allusion and word play.