VV (1): Notes and Queries Section I

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Section I: Norfolk, Virginia

p.9: 

The chapter heading is V-shaped, of course, and gives us a kind of summary
of the chapter. This stylistic device is at least as old as "Don Quijote".
Here it is employed in a different way, though, because we are not exactly
told what will happen on the following pages but are given an image we can
use to interpret the story of Benny Profane. Nevertheless, we can see this
as a reference to older forms of the novel.
 
"schlemihl" 
The OED gives: "schlemiel colloq. Also schlemihl, shlemiel. [Yiddish,
possibly ad. Heb. Shelumiel, name of a person in the Bible (Num. i. 6) said
by the Talmud to have met with an unhappy end; perh. influenced by the name
of the eponymous hero of A. von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihls wundersame
Geschichte (1814).] An awkward, clumsy person, a blunderer; a 'born loser';
a 'dope' or 'drip'. Also attrib." 

I seem to remember that the term has been discussed on the list not too long
ago.

"apocheir"
Pynchon's invention. Explained on p. 35 as analogy to "aphelion", the point
in space furthest away from the sun. A combination of the prefix "apo-",
"off, from, away", and the combining form "cheir", derived from the Greek,
for "hand" (in words derived from Latin this would be "chir"). Thus
signifying the lowest point of the yoyo in its up-and-down movement. 

"yo-yo"
also U.S. slang for "a stupid person, a fool". First instance in the OED is
from 1970. 

"Benny Profane"
Obviously a telling name. The device is well known from farce and
restoration comedy, and more subtle telling names can be found almost
everywhere in literature, but at least around the middle of the 20th century
it seems a rather crude way for an author to characterize his fictional
personae. "Profane" can mean, among other things, "common, irreligious,
blasphemous, not initiated into the religious rites". Both general meanings
can be applied to Benny: He is not only a common person with simple desires
(and perhaps not so simple fears), he deliberately mocks a holy ritual. See
below, "mezuzah". The word "Profane" not only characterizes the protagonist
but also the setting of the first chapter accurately as common, lowlife etc.
Often in Pynchon it seems the character's names are obviously not names from
the world as we know it but we are hard put to find out what exactly they
are meant to tell us. This is not the case with Profane, I believe.
Debatable, perhaps.

"Sterno can"
OED says: "U.S. A proprietary name for solidified alcohol supplied in
containers for use as fuel for cooking stoves, etc."

p. 10:
"travelling up and down the east coast like a yo-yo" 
One explanation for Profane's status as "human yo-yo". Are there others? In
terms of thermodynamics? Henry Adams? Note that a yo-yo is inanimate,
passive, inert compare p. 217). We will see whose hand is holding the string
later. 

" a single abstracted Street"
The Street has quite some meaning in V. Later in the novel, for example, it
is opposed to the "hothouse of the past". (468)

"SP"
Shore Patrol? Special Police? 

"receding in an asymmetric V to the east where it's dark and there are no
more bars"
V.: Title, leitmotif and the symbol whose meaning Herbert Stencil, and
perhaps also the reader, is in desperate need to find out.

p.11
"Beatrice" 
There are three of them in the "Sailor's Grave". Nice touch, because usually
people in novels have different surnames though everybody knows that, for
example, it is far more likely to meet two Thomases in a crowd of 20 than,
say, one Thomas and one KXX4493553. I cannot detect anything that hints at a
Dante reference here, hard as I try. 

"N.O.B."
??? Navy slang? 

p.12
"a gargantuan Negro"
Probably a conscious Reference to "Gargantua et Pantagruel" by Francois
Rabelais. The word "gargantuan" has entered common English usage with the
meaning "enormous, monstrous". There is more to it, though, because
Pynchon's barroom scenes, of which the first section of V. is a prime
example, are in various ways reminiscent of Rabelais' masterpiece - which is
seen by Michail M. Bachtin as the foremost expression in literature of the
popular culture of the middle ages. 

"PFC"
"Pore Forlorn Civilian", as in the song. 

"Mrs. Buffo"
A "buffo" is a singer in a comic opera or, more generally, a comic actor. We
might remember that in M&D Cherrycoke states something like "all History
must converge to Opera in the Italian Style". Speaking in terms of genre,
Mrs. Buffo's barroom belongs to the realm of the farcical and the grotesque.
See commentary section.

p.13    
"A miasma of evil etc."
Enter Pig Bodine. Wonderful paragraph.

p.14 
"AWOL"
"Absent With Out Leave"

"That young wife, Paola." 
Rather casually a very important character and the Malta connection are
introduced into the narrative. With the mention of the war larger historical
events are alluded to for the first time. 

p.15    
"She looked like an East Main barmaid. What was it about the prairie hare in
the snow, the tiger in tall grass and sunlight?"
The art of mimicry and, thus, survival. 

p.16
"trumpeter of Cracow"
??? A reference to an opera?