VV(13): Enters Weismann

[Dave Monroe]

Well, obviously, this reading, this kind of reading,
appeals to me.  Very good.  I've my own notion of
where the vertex of the text, V., is positioned, at
that fold between Chapters 8 and 9, but that's because
I'm raeding that "Epilogue" as the period, the
singularity, the vortex "after" (but hardly outside)
the text (V + .).  

W.T. Lhamon, Jr. notes that ...

"The alst name, Meroving, evokes the slack Merovingian
dynasty [in sixth-century Gaul] which subdivided its
ever-shifting landfs and was characterized by chronic
warfare.  The first name, Vera, means 'faith,' but its
other connotations qualify that meaning.  That is, the
wood of the vera tree is used as a substitute for
lignum vitae--literally, 'wood of life.'  Also, the
wood of the vera tree is characteristically yellow (a
color which recurs incessantly in V.), the same color
as the alloys of vandium for which 'V' is the chemica
symbol"

... "Pentecost, Promiscuity, and Pynchon's V.: From
the Scaffold to the Impulsive" (Mindful Pleasures:
Essays on Thomas Pynchon. Ed. George Levine and David
Leverenz.  Boston: Littel, Brown, 1976), p. 79, cited
in J. Kerry Grant, A Companion to V., p. 120 (which i
didn't have at hand whilst searching for that
article).  Grant also notes that David Richter "hears
'where-am-I-roving'" (Fable's End: Completeness and
Closure in Rhetorical Fiction [Chicago: U of C P,
1974. ], p. 109) ...

But I wonder, is this scene, with the mirror and so
forth, somehow reminiscent of, alluding to, or
outright lifted from a movie, or even a painting, of
some sort?  Seems that there are similar scenarios
somewhere, at any rate ...

--- Karen Hudes <kade at inch.com> wrote:
> Vera Meroving's name is mirror-like, close to a
> palindrome before the "ing,"
> and with a suggestion of the word "mirror." Her name
> suggests a moving,
> roving "v" that might pass through surfaces or
> reflections. 
> 
> Mondaugen's story also feels like something we're
> passing through to get to
> the other side of V., with Eigenvalue's interruption
> almost at the book's
> center.
> 
> The mirrors in the story have a yo-yo-like quality
> of bouncing one's vision
> back to oneself.

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