V. (Ch 3) Mac's small problem [Literally]

[Terrance]

Oh, Mac has been in Baedeker land for eight years, so even
if he has been getting a Little, no one seems to have
noticed, Alice would be 18 now, that's how old Mac figures
Victoria to be, so she was 10, "sixteen or so" my foot.
Could Alice be V? That would explain here sexual appetite,
in part, I think. Mac decides on the group, all English, he
likes them, and they have a small girl in their group. "He
also had an eye," Pynchon looked in that Slang dictionary
for this one, "an eye", and Mac, subject to visions and he
does have that intestinal shit thing going and he is getting
a bit paranoid now, a V-audville, a horrible osmosis, the
wind is going to get the word out, and not to the tourist
who could care less, but to the every beggar, vagrant,
exile-by-choice and peregrine-at-large, the beggars will be
gathering at the Fink. 

Alice was C of E, and it was "her" Clergyman, this seems to
be and allusion to Lewis  Carroll, but on the literal level,
this is why Pynchon is so fun, "her" clergyman would be the
one Alice confessed to or told or...and on this literal
level Alice, who is C of E,  can't be Victoria because
Victoria is RC. But of course we can read it both/and.
The wine, a White wine is V-oslaur and it brings forth the
ghost of Alice from Victoria Wren, her unilateral confession
and Mac, guilty, thinking of how he can get out of this, he
sure picked the wrong (for us the correct) group, how can he
return, be forgiven, has the world forgotten, will they
forgive him after eight years, but he is drawn to Victoria
and oh how cruel she is. Mac is no devil. And don't we feel
for him too, Pynchon is very careful not make devils and
angels and what a paradox, he does it by playing with devils
and angels.