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

[jbor]

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>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
>To: jbor at bigpond.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: V.V. (2) Eulenspiegel (Owlglass), Rachel
>Date: Sat, Oct 28, 2000, 5:06 PM
>

> You bring up a big topic, which demands a specificity between the books.

Indeed. Despite stylistic (and other) continuities, each of the novels is
quite distinctive imo.

> I
> believe in the Big-Book theory, allowing for development over the years.

I don't know about "the Big-Book theory", but there is certainly
development.

> As
> I've stated, I don't hold a one-to-one relationship between Rachel's name
> and her personal significance.  V. is a book about female amalgams.

Just female? What of Stencil's "impersonations", Fausto's various
"versions"? I think that there is a real danger in trying to impose an
unwarranted male chauvinism onto this text. Rachel and Paola seem as "real"
as any of the others in this early section, if not more rounded than the
men. They are depicted as having multi-faceted and somewhat inscrutable
characters, much more so than those cartoonish males, most of whom are
putting on a show to try and impress the ladies so's they get laid. That
"forcible dislocation of personality" is very much a male gig.

> Read that last "I hope you didn't miss this detail" post.  I've always
> relied on the kindness of my sources.

Read the post, saw the link. I can see "Owlglass" as the English translation
of Eulenspiegel, where Spiegel = mirror. But I don't know where this takes
the reader, except to a particularly vague sense of potential allusiveness
or into some interpretive labyrinth or house of mirrors which is ultimately
a dead end. Dickens it ain't.

best