VV(5)-Impersonation VII Hanne.

[jill]

Is Hanne in the same category as a Beatrice?
Hanne Eschertz

At once her character seems to let on that she doesn't really really
believe that her lover, Lepsius, is a jewellery salesman, the way she
describes it on p.87, and her sort of skeptical impression of the world of
the men who come in the bar, as obsesed with politics as they are with
picking up women... She thinks of men and their politics as akin to sex,
implying the daisy chain of men fucking over men, yet she laughs at it,
shaking it off, pushing away the intensity, wishing away the confusion for
a simpler world.

  jokingly im Scherz      fun      der Scherz
  in jest  im Scherz      hoax     der Scherz
  banter   der Scherz     jest     der Scherz
  frolic   der Scherz     joke     der Scherz
  
The most important task that she's been given is from Lepsius, to overhear
the clues for him that might be related to the "competitor in town," he
confided in her, "who is pushing an inferior line, underselling us, it's
unethical don't you see?"

But the way she describes Lepsius, he's weak, not very good in bed,
unattractive, and at first we don't know if "competition" to her means
someone new, a different man, quite possibly, for her, and at the first
reading I had thought she was looking for a different lover. But actually
she cares quite deeply for this weakling, so much so that one of love's
side effects seemed to be hallucinations. Lucia? One of the other maids in
Dante's Inferno? I could find no conclusive evidence. 

Now, at Noon, her hearing is affected/damaged/distorted by the dropping of
a plate. And before the customers even start talking she's "heard more than
she was intended to." p.88 Despite the shiftiness of her own workmates at
the bar, she pushes away this "Imagination" of hers again and again during
this part. 

Also, there seems to be a general disease among the people. "Was it a
change in the light, or were the skins of the others actually beginning to
show the blotches of disease?"p.89 Sort of a walking dead, or purgatory
description here? I don't know.

Now the plate and the V stain is such a beautifully mysterious passage.
First, if it were a crack the base would be in the center and the apex at
the edge. But it's the other way around. The way she has to unfocus in
order to see it better. Another distortion for her. She hears even after
her hearing is shattered by a breaking plate. And she sees better after she
unfocuses her eyes, which by now have the V "fissioned like an overlay to
each of her retinae"p. 90

So during her passes, her rounds, she is learning just how serious the
situation is without seeing completely what is going on. The snippets of
conversation between Porpentine and Varkumian, give us some atmosphere, or
overall feeling that Lord Cromer is dangerously close to being
assassinated, and also that there is a meeting of Kitchener and Marchand in
Fashoda, a place.

I also get a feeling about earlier references to Porp's veils of skin in
the reference to his wearing of a disguise on p.91. That they are not
solely due to sunburn as in earlier impersonations, but perhaps a
removed-beard?

That pointy toungue on the Pentecost thing can be pointing at something,
and the Passover of the thing floating over the park seem to be
significant. Except that in the bible the Passover is first and then the
Pentecost occurs 50 days after Passover. And that Passover has to do with
getting the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt, and Pentecost has to do
with the getting of the Law from Moses, the Laws of Yahweh. The loss of the
covenant and the getting of the law.

Hanne thinking that this all has to do with women's jewellery is ironic.
She overhears the last little confusing snippet from Porpentine and
Victoria. 

on p. 92 it is impossible to linearly read what is being said by P & V and
tell what is going on. Perhaps P is pulling out a confession from Victoria
of her love for Goodfellow and that is all it is. Perhaps it is that P & V
are collaborating one another's stories, one anarchist sympathizer to
another. And the typical Pynchonian cut up sentence, guides us not exactly
to what is being said on p. 92.

"I followed you," the girl said. "Papa would die if he found out." Hanne
could see her face, half in shadow. "About Mr. Goodfellow." 

It could be read

I followed your directions, and papa would die if he found out. Now, about
Mr Goodfellow, whatever I may think, I will agree with you that I love him,
(but in real life I don't love anyone)

I followed you during the day and saw what you did, and Papa would die if
he found out about that. About Mr Goodfellow, I really do love him, you'll
just have to understand.

I followed you and I know you know about me and Mr Goodfellow. Papa would
die if he knew that Mr Goodfellow and I slept together. But if we say that
I love him, then that will override the collaborations we actually are
making that have nothing to do with love. 

And the reply from Porpentine, then: "Your father was in a German church
this afternoon, As we are now in a German beer hall. Sir Alastair was
listening to someone play Bach. As if Bach were all that were left."
Another pause, "So that he may know."

We still don't really have it set down in stone whether Victoria is the
daughter or mistress of Sir Alastair Wren, do we. Again both are possible
with Porp's response. Doesn't this response sound like Porpentine coaching
her as to what was going on during the day as if to prepare her for some
inevitable trial? Or, perhaps it is a soothing consolation to Victoria to
know the wherabouts of Sir Alastair wren during the day that day? During
the day in pp 82-83, in Cairo's market nad the Muski, and the interactions
of the jewel merchant, Porpentine, and Zenobia, and the evil things that
must have transpired then? 

Victoria doesn't give Porpentine the direction he expects. She expects him
to understand. Hanne concludes that it was not love.  But what? Somehow
that it is not love causes her to feel palpably disturbed with Lepsius, and
that she wants to crush his glasses and watch him suffer. 

Looking forward to VV(6).