V.V. (2) Eulenspiegel (Owlglass), Rachel

[jbor]

Apart from Pig Bodine, as Quail noted, practical jokesterism and "the Fool"
are probably much more pertinent to *GR*. Though Bodine recurs throughout
nearly all of the stories and novels he is never what you could call focal,
or the narrative protagonist. Benny is certainly an everyman-type (or,
indeed, as Thomas noted at the outset, a pícaro) but not at all a comic
jester like Till Eulenspiegel.

I'm not sure how you're getting from owlglass to mirror either (but mirrors
are very important I agree), and Rachel's love for her MG and her love for
Benny don't seem to be narcissistic at all. (Her character is fleshed out
significantly in the next section. If anything she preaches a sort of
anti-narcissism at Schoenmaker.)

Regarding the name "Rachel": I'd say that the Old Testament overtones (and
the red herring) are compounded straight away as we come upon her profligate
roommate, Esther, in Ch 2.

best


----------
>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
>To: jbor at bigpond.com
>Subject: Re: V.V. (2) Eulenspiegel (Owlglass), Rachel
>Date: Fri, Oct 27, 2000, 2:21 AM
>

> Well, I don't know about those "red herrings."  Maybe so, maybe not.  But
> significance is in the eyes of, and is the responsibility of, the beholder.
> "Owlglass" as both the common-man jester (the Fool?) and as a mirror are
> significant in the book as a whole, but not specifically for Rachel.
> Narcissism and the mirror seems an important connection too: loving one's
> projection onto an inanimate object.