V. (Ch 3 iii) 'Queen' Victoria/Max's disgrace

[jbor]

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.