By any other name Geli (2)

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

By any other Name: Geli Tripping and Pynchon's doubled
children




>From Twins: Nature's Amazing Mystery, Doubles; Studies in
Literary History and Multiple
Personality and the Disintegration of Literary Character) 

The etymology of the word "twin" is as follows: Old English
twinn, meaning twofold, double, two by two; akin to Old High
German zwinal, born a twin, and Middle English getwin.
Modern English dictionaries define the verb twin as to match
or to link together one with another, or to divide one into
two equal parts. Literature through the centuries has
displayed a similar multiplicity of meaning when dealing
with twins and the whole issue of doubling. 

Certain themes tend to prevail in literature dealing with
twins and doubling.

1) Twins are so much alike that no one can tell them apart.
This causes mistaken identity crises and/or the substitution
of one twin for another. 

    Some examples 
  1.Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 
  2.The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas 
  3.Esao and Jacob by Machado de Assiz 

2) Two unrelated, though physically similar "astro-twins"
pass for twins and switch identities and substitute each
other's lives "for fun or profit." Often one will
impersonate the other and tarnish his or her reputation, as
with the "imposter" motif. 

    Examples 
  1.The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain 
  2.Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain 

3) Twin births come as the big unexpected event in the life
of a family, and surprises everyone, "especially the
husband, boyfriend or lover." 

4) Good twin versus Evil twin (or just evil twins) 

    Example 
  1.Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 



Besides dealing with a literal pair of twins, many works
present stories of individuals with strange "doubles" or
multiple personalities. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by RL
Stevenson is the classic example of this metaphor of the
second self. This hallucinated double conjures up old world
supersticions about about a doppelganger, or one's imaginary
twin. Such doubles in literature are both imagined and flesh
and blood, but the concept of a "double" offers great
potential for confronting social taboos and deviant
behavior, psychological problems, and for pushing the limits
of reality. 

A passage from Doubles; Studies in Literary History,
summarizes the utter ambiguiousness of the "double" in
literature 

    There can be no satisfying short description of what
doubles are, or of what they have become in shedding some
part of their supernatural origins, as harbingers of evil
and death, and growing into an element of individual
psychology and a domestic feature.  But it is time to repeat
that they have often been about running away, and revenge,
when these pursuits are enjoined and prevented, when they
are left to the imagination. One self does what the other
can't; one self is meek while the other one is
fierce...Doubles may appear to come from outside...or from
inside...within these  complications must surely lie an
attempt to disclaim responsibility for events and    crises
which are internal to the individual but in which his
environment will alwa    seem to take part.

More twins/doubles in literature

Twins 

  1.The Bobsey Twins adventure series by_______ 
  2.On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin 
  3.The Solid Mandala by Patrick White 
  4.Success by Martin Amis 
  5.Princess Daisy by Judith Krantz 
  6.Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon 
  7.Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal 

Multiple personality/physical forms

  1.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stephenson 
  2.Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 
  3.Sybil by Schreiber 
  4.The Story of Ruth by Morton Schatzman 
  5.The Three faces of Eve by Thigpen and Cleckley 
  6.The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  7.Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
  8.Orlando by Virginia Wolff 
  9.Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

Double lives 

  1.She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith 
  2.Dracula by Bram Stoker 
  3.Double Agent by Joseph Conrad 

Metaphysical doubles, blurred bodies 

  1.A Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde 
  2.The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad 
  3.William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe 

The double in various forms is found in V., CL, VL, M&D, and
GR. Charles Hohmann notes that in GR, the double applies
mostly to children. Since Geli is a "child" in GR we might
consider why Pynchon applies the double motif to children
and if names, half names, provide clues as to what Pynchon
is alluding to in and outside of the text. 

TBC