V.V. (3) "Young Stencil the world adventurer"

[jbor]

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>From: Don Corathers <crawdad at one.net>


> --When the M. says to Stencil "You are so close" (53.15), what the hell is
> she talking about?

Perhaps "close" in the sense of secretive or reticent?

> --And the exchange about V., in which M. says "A woman" and Stencil replies
> "Another woman," who is the first woman who makes it possible for there to
> be another one?

The Margravine? It seems that between the wars Stencil had used his father's
diaries "only by way of learning how to please the blood-conscious
'contacts' of his legacy". (54.18) This sounds somewhat dubious, as though
he has been pimping himself in some way. Having worked for the British F.O.
-- a spy, in other words, as we shall see -- the sort of information
contained in old Stency's journals would be much like that in the dossiers
on Slothrop, Pokler and the rest in *GR* I imagine; juicy secrets, personal
peculiarities and peccadilloes, incriminating stuff like that.

The only legacy of his childhood -- of any sense of "The Family" (which
provokes a couple of bitter reflections at 54.10 and 55.28-30), which, for
young Stency, is conspicuous by its absence as you note -- is the journals;
there wasn't "much in the way of pounds and shillings".(54.7) Perhaps this
is why he has decided to exploit the institution of "The Family", out of
resentment and bitterness that he had never been part of one? Anyway, I can
envisage the Margravine as an older women, a dowager type, with whom Stencil
has been engaging in some sort of mercenary love-tryst. There is a piquancy
in her words in their scripted exchange, an undercurrent of emotional
intensity, as if pleas and protestations are being suppressed in order to
maintain a sense of decorum and dignity. This would certainly fit in with
Stencil "having" something on her by virtue of his dad's notes, too.

Another Stencillic affectation is the way inverted commas are placed around
certain words in the narration: "contacts" and "blood" a couple of times on
54-55; "soul" at the bottom of 56. I think this affectation -- the textual
equivalent of the "air quote" perhaps -- is Stencil questioning or
undermining his own integrity as much or more than these notions themselves.
I think he regards himself and his past life with something which approaches
distaste.

Thanks again,

best