V.V.(9) Chapter Seven, part 1 - commentary

[Michael Perez]

     In Eigenvalue’s office, we are told, is a set of metal false
teeth,
so right at the start of the chapter we revisit the animate/inanimate
motif.  It is reinforced several times in the introduction alone. 
Stencil says of the set of dentures:  “It would be something she’d
wear” [154.30], meaning V., of course.  
     In the short explanation of the development of psychodontia the
pulp of a tooth is compared to Freud’s concept of the id and the
enamel to the superego.  The narrator describes the pulp as “soft
and laced with little blood vessels and nerves” [153.12], whereas
“[t]he enamel, mostly calcium, is inanimate” [153.13].  He goes on
to say that these relationships “were the it and the I psychdontia
had to deal with.  The hard lifeless I covered up the warm, pulsing
it; protecting and sheltering” [153.13-15].  In addition, Stencil
questions Eigenvalue about prosthetics, inanimate material
constructed to replace various body parts, including teeth.
     The line that provides the title of the chapter is provided by
Signor Mantissa regarding the location of the Botticelli painting. 
The narrator’s describes him as one of the inanimate, also:  “His
five feet three rested angular on the folding chair, a body small,
well-wrought and somehow precious, as if it were the forgotten
creation of any goldsmith--even Cellini--shrouded now in dark
serge and waiting to be put up to auction.” [159.18-22]  He
consistently refers to the painting of Venus as “she” [163.24,
164.4, 165.34].  Mantissa’s elaborate plan calls for the painting to
be hidden in a hollowed out Juda’s tree - an animate object used
merely for a vessel and then discarded quickly “before the purple
flowers die” [164.31] so that no one knows it has been rendered
inanimate.   The painting is inanimate, the main subject is from
mythology, the various other figures seem superfluous to the
Gaucho who does not understand why someone would want to go
through the trouble of stealing such a thing.  It is Mantissa’s
obsession, for no other reason we know of than that “She is so
beautiful” [165.34].  References in this chapter to Aestheticism,
the Decadents, the Generation of ‘98, Benvenuto Cellini
(goldsmith in Florence during the Renaissance), Botticelli, and
Walter Pater (“author of *The Renaissance*” [157.31]) seem to
weave in the beginnings of a debate over the nature of beauty and
the hope (or lack of it) for the world and its life in art that would
be contemporary to the time period within Stencil’s stories.
     Later in the chapter, Hugh Godolphin talks about the tattooed
skin of the people of Vheissu and of Vheissu itself.  Both are
dominated by colors that change in the sunlight and are different
day to day.  In a rather sado-masochistic description of the feelings
these colors induce in him, which foreshadows events during
Foppl’s Siege Party, Godolphin began to wish he could “flay that
tattooing to a heap of red, purple and green debris, leave the veins
and ligaments raw and quivering and open at last to your eyes and
your touch” [171.17-20].  However, stripping the skin of anything
in Vheissu reveals Nothing, it is all skin above and, Godolphin
figures, no life below.  Even dreams are “not closer to the waking
world, but somehow, I think, they do seem more real” [171.3-4]. 
Does he mean more real than dreams outside of Vheissu, more real
than waking reality inside Vheissu, more real than the seemingly
animate being that inhabit Vheissu?  In Vheissu everything that
shows on the outside is raiment (clothing) or skin, below is
lifeless, soulless.  Which is exactly opposite, of course, to the
psychodontal description given of teeth.
     The above/below motif carries on with these descriptions of
teeth and skin, too.  Eigenvalue also likens history to fabric
“rippled with gathers” [155.30-31] with Stencil conducting his
investigation at the bottom of a fold so that “it’s impossible to
determine warp, woof or pattern anywhere else” [155.32-33]. 
Vheissu is ringed with mountains, so it seems to be one of these
low places.  Godolphin tries to reach the South Pole, the lowest
point on the globe (ignoring, for the moment, the angle and
precession of the Earth’s axis and quibbling over geographic or
magnetic poles), in the southern hemisphere’s midwinter.  Being
able to see from above, as Eigenvalue supposes, either from the
tops of the mountains around Vheissu or from the sunny climes
north of the Antarctic, still does not seem to help.  In _V._, the
further south you go the more trouble you find.
     Other motifs evident in this chapter are the exploration of the
relationships between fathers and sons, the responsibilities of a
spiritual mother, and, of course, the scattered appearances of the
letter “V.”  We have Sidney and Herbert Stencil and Hugh and
Evan Godolphin displaying similarly strong but strained and
distant ties - the Stencils by distances of geography and time and
the Godolphins by distances between their senses of purpose and
willingness to perform duties for the good of others.  Both sons are
self-serving, both fathers servants of the Empire.  However, the
younger Stencil and the older Godolphin are the obsessed ones. 
Yet Herbert pursues his quarry by sponging off his father’ friends
and contacts while Hugh joins up for imperial missions that may
lead him back to that which he seeks.  So, Herbert’s recounting of
these stories may be colored by the identification with Hugh’s
obsession and the ability of storyteller’s license to elevate the
heroic exploits of Evan and Evan’s willingness to join his father’s
quest, something Herbert did not do until after his father’s death,
presuming, of course, that V. actually had any hold on Sidney
other than what is evident in the scant references in his journals.
     Victoria provides a fascinating example of the entity that we are
to imagine is represented by Sidney’s V. and of a spiritual mother
like Rachel and Fina.  This White Goddess has her own rules,
though still thinks of herself as fulfilling the obligations of her
religion.  Already our candidate for V. identifies herself with those
who attend Black Masses in Paris (which will be important later in
the book) and those who are mistresses of high-ranking clergy. 
She doesn’t believe her four affairs compromise her faith in any
way.  The narrator relates “this was more than simple sanction, it
was implicit acceptance of the four episodes as outward and
visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace belonging to Victoria
alone” [167.15-17].  We are told “she had crystallized into a
nun-like temperament pushed to its dangerous extreme” [167.20]. 
However, she does provide comfort and acts as a mother confessor
to Hugh Godolphin, deftly moving from contrition to bribery to
sympathy and on to sycophancy and possibly dangerous curiosity. 
She is no stranger to associations with grisly events in history and
wears an ivory comb with the depiction of five (Roman numeral
V) crucified British soldiers (in the _Companion_ Grant points out
that there is, thus far, no known record of these 1883 crucifixions
as historical fact - see p.92).  This comb also relates to the
animate/inanimate motif, since inanimate ivory can only be
gathered from animate elephants, who were slaughtered (rendered
inanimate) solely for this commodity, and on the comb, which
holds back hair (somewhat animate - it does grow, but does not
suffer being cut)  were carved the likenesses of five crucified
(rendered inanimate) men.
     In addition to Victoria, this chapter offers a plethora of Vs to
consider worthy of Stencil’s or the reader’s attention.  We also
have Vheissu, Vecchio, Vaporetto (“steamboat”), Venezuela, and
Venus.  Do any of these Vs have anything to do with Stencil’s V.? 
Aside from being one of the motivations for continuing to read the
book, these appearances force the reader to become one with
Stencil and Captain Hugh.  The contagious paranoia that Pynchon
amplifies to outrageous extremes in _GR_  is very evident here.
     In fact the chapter itself is sort of V-shaped.  It begins with
the
Vheissu and Venus stories separate and, not so gradually, the two
lines converge beyond the sections of the chapter that are covered
here.  We will leave the question of the validity of this observation,
perhaps, until John Bailey takes over as host for the remaining
sections of Chapter Seven.    



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