VV (1): Commentary I - Questions of Genre

[Thomas Eckhardt]

"It was a neat theory, and he was in love with it." (189)


1.) The picaresque

As means of a chapter heading we do not only find the words "chapter one"
but also a kind of short summary of the action - formed like a V, of course
- a stylistic device very common in novels written between the 16th and the
18th century. What we get here, though, is not only a summary - which states
that the following is to be a description of a certain Benny Profane
reaching the lowest point of a permanent up-and-down movement - but also an
image that might help us to explain the protagonist of the chapter. The
yo-yo-image implies both restless movement and the existence of an outside
force. In other words, the narrator provides an interpretational scheme for
our perception of the protagonist of the novel before we even get to know
him and can perhaps come to our own conclusions. Also, as a "yo-yo" and
"schlemihl", i.e. a traveller and a loser, the character of Benny Profane is
reminiscent of one of the stock characters of the history of the novel, the
"picaro" of Spanish origin. Benny is certainly not a "knave" or "rogue", the
original meaning of the word "picaro", but he is certainly a "vagabond" or
drifter. 

The "typical story" of a picaresque narrative, which usually also had the
beforementioned short summaries or motti preceding each chapter, concerns,
in the words of M.H. Abrams, "the escapades of an insouciant rascal who
lives by his wits and shows little if any alteration of character through
the long succession of his adventures; picaresque fiction is realistic in
manner, episodic in structure (...) and often satiric in aim." (Glossary of
Literary Terms, "novel") V. is an episodic novel, it is often satiric in
mood, and, at least insofar as the narrative concerns Benny Profane and his
adventures, there seems to be not much of an alteration of character. Also,
Benny will have to come to terms as best as he can with the situations he
finds himself in during his journey. Different from the classical picaro
though, Benny does not really survive them by his wits and street-wise
knowledge, but instead remains passive throughout.

Is Benny Profane a stock character? If one is explicitly invited to perceive
a character in a novel as being defined by a very narrow set of qualities -
restless movement, loser, later fear of the inanimate - one might suspect
that the narrator is out to deceive the reader and that there might be more
depth to Profane than the narrator purports there is. The same is valid for
the telling names. In chapter one, though, I do not find much evidence for
the view that Profane is not a "flat character", to use E.M. Forster's
well-known term. I believe that Pynchon at the beginning of V. acknowledges
the influence of the genre of the picaresque on the novel's characters and
narrative structure and openly announces that his novel is going to rely
heavily on 

2.) The farcical 

Abrams says that the manner of the picaresque is "realistic". It is
realistic, one might add, for the same reason that it is satiric: The
picaresque novel is, in the words of Northrop Frye, interested "in the
actual structure of society" (Anatomy of Criticism, 310). V. may be
influenced by the genre, but it is certainly not written in a wholly
realistic manner. Although time and place are firmly established in the
first paragraph of the book, things soon begin to seem a little strange.
Norfolk is close to but not really like what we know or imagine it to have
been in 1955. We are dealing with the aspect of Pynchon's style that has
been called "absurd", "surreal", "grotesque", "farcical" or "fantastic". I'd
like to focus on the term "farcical" because to me it seems to be the most
adequate.

Let us have a closer look at what's going on here. The familiar is mixed
with the not familiar, or, in other words, we have a conflation of the
mimetic and the non-mimetic mode. To name a few obvious examples: I
certainly know next to nothing about Norfolk in 1955, but the "Suck Hour"
appears to be something that would not have been part of barroom
entertainment in Virginia or anywhere else at that time. The whole scene at
"The Sailor's Grave" is an exaggeration into the realm of the improbable, a
caricature, of the behaviour to be excpected from sailors when they finally
have reached shore. More generally, the actions and situations described in
the opening chapter of V. are at least highly improbable, if not impossible,
in the world as we know it. Furthermore, we will perhaps find names like
those of P's characters - Profane, Ploy, Majistral, Owlglass, probably not
Dewey Gland or Da Conho, because "conho", if I am not mistaken, means "cunt"
in Portuguese - in real life, but certainly not in such frequent occurence.
Ships of the US Navy are, I trust, not named "Impulsive" or "Scaffold". And
so on. In Aristotelian terms again: Some of the narrated actions are not
imitations of actions in the world as we know it. 

The first chapter of V. thus displays all the characteristics of farce.
Let's hear M.H. Abrams on "Farce" as a dramatic genre: "Farce is a type of
comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple, hearty laughter - "belly
laughs," in the parlance of the theater. To do so it employs highly
exaggerated or caricatured types of characters, puts them into improbable
and ludicrous situations, and makes free use of sexual mix-ups, broad verbal
humor, and physical bustle and horseplay." (Glossary of Literary Terms,
"Comedy") "Broad verbal humor" is quite prominent in the chapter, and so is
physical comedy. We are invited to laugh at puns, at sometimes rather stale
jokes which are made by characters and narrator alike, at Ploy's vicious
attacks on the barmaids, at sailors sucking on beer taps shaped like large
breasts etc. If we take "farcical" as term not only for a certain kind of
comedy but as term for a narrative mode, it seems to be exactly the word we
need here. Some

3.) further points of debate

could perhaps be: 

The farcical mode can be found in any of Pynchon's texts. It is a prominent
feature of his narrational style and, at least for this reader, largely
accountable for the appeal of his novels. At times, perhaps when used in a
context to which it conventionally doesn't seem appropriate, it can be
rather disturbing. The tone gets much, much darker later in V., but there
are always elements of farce which, I believe, tend to reinforce the horror.
Or do we have to use another term for the non-mimetic aspects of the
narrator's treatment of Foppl's Siege Party or dark carnival in chapter
nine? Perhaps the "grotesque" would apply? And what about the oftmentioned
Menippean Satire? This seems to be a very important here, because the term
seems to refer to a kind of satire that is not restricted by the boundaries
of the mimetic or realistic mode. Terrance? Ophilia? Bonnie?

In terms of the history of the novel: After the psychological subtlety of
authors like Joyce, Woolf or James, Pynchon - very consciously of the
development of the genre, as I hope to have demonstrated - goes back to
older forms of the novel, back to popular culture as the main inspiration
for his fictions - and it will always be the popular culture of the
narrative present that will inform not only his subject matter but much more
importantly the form of the narrative. His stock characters, low comedy and
stereotypes in GR will be inspired by farce's close 20th century's relative
slapstick, by the world of gangster, spy, SF and fantasy movies, by porn
flicks; in Vineland by TV; in M&D, of course, by the Gothic serial novel,
the Captive Tale, the adventure novel, and so on.   

Thomas