"v"s and Malta

[jbor]

And *V.* the novel (or one half thereof, at least) falls very much into the
popular detective fiction genre. Whether as parody or homage is quite
immaterial (Because the one always bleeds into the other, and vice versa.
Both/and, not either/or.)

Don't think Hammett (Or Sam Spade. Or Bogart.) gets a credit anywhere in
Pynchon's product (Do they?) So it seems that at least one of the putative
"extra-textual" sources hasn't been acknowledged at the surface level after
all.

Great ob. Thanks.

best


----------
>From: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo at clara.net>
>To: "p-list" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: "v"s and Malta
>Date: Wed, Oct 25, 2000, 4:43 AM
>

> The following is the beginning of "The Maltese Falcon"
>
>
> Sam Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more
> flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller,
> v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by
> thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his
> pale brown hair grew down--from high flat temples--in a point on his
> forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.
>
> best
>
> James
>