VV(13): Enters Weismann

[Michel Ryckx]

It's hard to struggle with a foreign language.  Forgive me for having written
unclearly.

jbor wrote: (...) Yes, but there's no hint of pain here. (...)

There is.  I thought to have made it clear that the atmosphere --spherics, if you
like-- in which Vera, upon meeting Mondaugen, is introduced, was accompanied by
pain at 236.22.  I did not say that Weissmann was causing pain.  But there is pain
'lanced' and it is a background noise. Then, when Weissmann is coming to get her,
he does not do it in a gentle way, as may be expected from a 'companion' (236.30).

> I get the impression that Weissmann has been spying and is worried that Vera is
> about to betray some secret to Kurt

So did I.

> (...)almost a comic character, always engaged in some crazy clandestine activity.

I really can't see anything comic-like at all in the introduction of Weissmann.  Do
you want to say: as in comics?

> Later, as the "piqued lieutenant", he lunges out from behind a stalagmite in a
> "decorative grotto" to accuse Mondaugen of sending coded messages to some English
> spy "at Upington", and then counter-accuses him of receiving coded messages from
> the English, and then wants to play at decoding Kurt's sferics (251-252). In this
> scene he comes across as stereotypically foolish: his glasses fog up, he makes
> absurd and contradictory accusations, and then is "almost childlike" in his
> eagerness to actually be able to *do* something for Kurt.

I can agree with that.

As on the differences between the rather superficial appearance of Weissmann in
this novel, or the much more elaborate one in Gravity's Rainbow', I have no doubts
that they are the same persona.  But I will maintain that both their appearances is
accompanied by pain.  Would 'sinister' be the right word, describing them in both
novels?

Kind regards,

Michel.