V.V. (17) current chapter

[jbor]

1) V's "identity"

Stencil's recount of V's escapades in Chapter 13 (386-388) demonstrates
pretty conclusively that she is, and is intended to be, a fictitious
character. There is a plethora of "names" in the summary of her
acquaintances which Stencil provides for Profane, however, none of them lend
any support to the speculation that V is meant to be any one actual
historical personage.


2) "story"/storey

Even though it is standard US usage, I can't help but hear a pun in the
following passage:

    ... There'd be no reward from Stencil because there's no honor among
    second- (or ninth-) story men. Because Stencil was more a bum than
    he. (390.7)

A "second-storey man" is a burglar who enters premises through an upstairs
window, which fits with what Stencil and Profane are doing. And this
recognition that Stencil is more of a "bum" than Profane is a pretty crucial
one I think. But on a reflexive level the quip that there's "no honor among
second- (or ninth-) story men" relates to the way that Pynchon's postmodern
fictions are constructed, how ideas and stories are "stolen" from prior
sources. The nesting of narratives within narratives (within a narrative)
typifies much of his fiction, particularly in this novel and in _M&D_, and
is a defining characteristic of the postmodern genre itself. And, there is a
distinct sense in which Stencil, and his creator, are themselves "second-
(or ninth-) story men". Pynchon's foregrounding (and somewhat
self-deprecatory self-consciousness -- "no honor") of the way that all texts
are always already constructed from other texts -- his own included -- is
another common feature within his literary mode, one which places him and
his work firmly into the postmodern genre I think.


3) Pynchon's attitude to homosexuality

The depiction of the attempted entrapment of "Neil" in a Central Park beat
by a plain-clothes cop (392) readily shows that Pynchon is neither
homophobic nor anti-gay, as some have attempted to suggest. This brief
interlude connects with comparable episodes and comments in _GR_ (eg.
680.16, 688-690, 722.11-16). In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's an
extremely brave and unusual scene for the early 60s! It's certainly outside
the moral mainstream of that era, and pre-emptive of civil rights movements
of later in the decade.


4) "Them"

The capitalisation of "Them" at 368.12 pre-empts the "They" used throughout
_GR_, and illustrates that Pynchon appropriated the pronoun usage
idiosyncratically to refer to an abstraction (in this case "the inanimate
world", in _GR_ to a or the "System") rather than to human individuals or
groups.

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