V.V.(4): Notes, Comments, and Queries IV

[Dedalus]

V.V.(4):  Impersonation III --- Notes, Comments, and Queries IV (pp.
66-74)
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~~ Notes:

66.16 --- "The Fink restaurant":  restaurant in Place Mohammed Ali,
where all of this section takes place.

66.22 --- "feeling the first shooting pains of panic begin to dance
about his abdomen":  a typical Pynchonesque stylistic device, equating
panic (and often paranoia) with defecation, the anus, etc.  My personal
favorite is Zoyd's "gotta shit throbs of fear" in _Vineland_ (10).
What's yours?

66.25 --- "peregrine": one who comes from foreign regions; foreign.

66.27 --- "L'Univers": another cafe in Alexandria.

66.30 --- "Ralph MacBurgess": aka Maxwell Rowley-Bugge; vaudvillian
who's "daft for young girls"; his code: "take whatever they give you"
(cf. 74.08).

66.30 --- "a young Lochinvar":  the hero of a ballad in Scott's
_Mfarmion_, who boldly rides off with his sweetheart just as she is
about to be married to another.

67.12 --- "Athenaeum Theatre":  in Lardwick-in-the-Fen, Yorkshire.
http://staff.ndl.co.uk/martin/york/default.asp

67.34 --- "baksheesh": a gratuity or tip in India, Turkey, and/or Egypt.

71.29 --- "since Mr. Flinders Petrie's painstaking inspection of sixteen
or seventeen years ago": Petrie, Flinders (1853-1942) was an English
archaeologist and, after 1881, exclusively an Egyptologist. He surveyed
the pyramids and temples of Giza and was the author of more than 100
books.
http://users.net2000.com.au/~fmetrol/petrie/titlepage.html
http://www.britannica.com/seo/s/sir-william-matthew-flinders-petrie/

72.13 --- "Lepsius": a German in a cape and blue eyeglasses, possibly
named after Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-84), German Egyptologist and the
author of numerous books including _Chronologie der Aegypter_ (which
laid the foundation for a scientific treatment of early Egyptian
history) and _Todtenbuch_ (the Egyptian Book of the Dead) (1867).
http://www.britannica.com/seo/k/karl-richard-lepsius/
http://www.iversonsoftware.com/business/archaeology/Lepsius.htm

72.14 --- "Brindisi": Italian port city where Lepsius has been before
turning up in Cairo.


~~ Comments:

Pynchon's works often contain scenes that seem to function as
mini-parodies of various film and literary genre (e.g. Ninja films,
B-movie horror flicks, detective fiction, etc.), and this section is no
exception.  Indeed, the whole section seems to resonate with sandstone
walls and fez caps a'la _Casablanca_ as Old Max sizes up the newcomers
as they fill the Fink.  The table conversation, with its mysteriously
knowing glances, vaguely elliptical discourse, "timed" gestures, and
subtle allegiences (all noted as "odd" by Max, who realizes that this
"was none of your amateur night"),  contributes to the overall search
motif found in the previous sections, but enables the author to have
some fun with his readers by employing the 1940's Hollywood noir as his
narrative method.

Another typically Pynonesque device that is found in this section is the
man/girl relationship, perhaps best rendered in the Slothrop/Bianca
relationship in _GR_.  The beginning of this section analeptically
reveals Old Max's "unpleasantness in Yorkshire" with ten-year-old Alice
in the dressing room of the Athenaeum Theatre (a subtle nod to Nabokov?
Lewis Carroll?).  The "Alice" motif reinforces the "appearances and
deceptions" found in the earlier sections, as Max studies Victoria Wren
and her possible similarities to his Alice.  It is this "ghost of Alice"
that finally contributes in part to his leaving the group at section's
end without having accepted Porpentine's money.

Finally, one important question remains:  what is the significance of
the chapter's title, in which Stencil is described as "a quick-change
artist [who] does eight impersonations"? Are P. Aieul, Yusef the
anarchist, and Old Max mere "impersonations" performed by Stencil in his
search for V?  Certainly there are suggestions that this might be the
case.  Mustaches (as disguise) are a staple of old-time Hollywood
features, and here they figure prominently in both II and III, recalling
Slothrop's own use of a mustache kit as a child (Penguin, 210).
Remember as well that in the Prologue, Stencil ponders how "disguise
[was employed] not out of any professional necessity but only as a
trick, simply to involve him less in the chase" (58.05).  Any thoughts
on this?

Additionally, Aieul, Yusef, and Max all remark on the presence of
tourists (most notably, English tourists) in their respective sections,
reinforcing the notion that these characters are keenly aware of
identities, appearances, and those who "belong."  Finally, the presence
of a woman (or lack thereof) is a recurring component of all three
sections: Aieul questions whether the Englishman in his cafe is "waiting
for a lady" (60.05), and distinguishes the name of Victoria Wren in the
conversation between Porpentine and Goodfellow; Yusef contemplates his
balloon-girl and ladles Chablis punch at the Austrian Consulate,
hovering about Victoria Wren and "stray[ing] to her now and again
throughout the evening"; Old Max recalls his "Alice" as he joins
Porpentine, Goodfellow, and the sisters Wren at their table.

Each of these men is perhaps a Stencilian impersonation, for each man
assumes a background role in his respective section (waiter, kitchen
help, and vagrant), yet each is obviously and keenly preoccupied with
"Victoria Wren" and all that regards her (interestingly, note as well
that in each successive "impersonation," the Stencilian figure gets
physically closer to Victoria).  And since the Prologue (which, as you
recall, opens with Stencil waking from his weekly dream) portrays him in
the final scene "drowsing on the sofa" while examining Sidney's  picture
postcard, and concludes with Stencil again drifting to dreamstate, the
three Impersonations are best viewed as sections of a dream sequence in
which Stencil himself enters the "action" of Porpentine's adventures in
Egypt.

Is Victoria the elusive "V"?  I doubt it.  That would be too easy, and
we all know Pynchon wouldn't make it that easy.  Besides, Pynchon's
texts always revolve around ambiguities (recall the controversial
Holocaust issue in GR some time ago), and for as much as he might lead
the reader to think one thing, he soon leads the reader into thinking
another (an influence of having read _The Confidence Man_, perhaps?).
Is "V" Stencil's mother?  Is "V" Victoria? Each is supportable . . . and
debateable.


~~ Queries:

1.  "[Alice] was C of E, sturdy-English, future mother, apple cheeks,
all that" (70.13).  I don't get "C of E."  Church of England?  What
significance?

2.  Again, note the presence of "eight," this time in the number of
"years [Max has spent] in this supranational domain" (68.14).  I return
to my original question: is there a significance to this number?

3.  What do you make of all the references to "tourists" in Chapter
Three so far?