V.V. (17) Rachel and Benny

[David Morris]

>From: "jbor"
>
> >From: "Samuel Moyer" <smoyer at satx.rr.com>
> > I am looking at V. pages 383-385, the Rachel and Profane - MG bit there 
>myself and will post later today...  (Why was Profane Scared? top of 384.)
>
>My guess is that he was scared because he suddenly saw how predisposed an 
>otherwise apparently reasonable person could be to "love" a thing. The 
>experience of seeing Rachel making love to her MG started Benny thinking 
>about "a world of things that had to be watched out for" (384), and his own 
>status in such a world as a "schlemihl", which he earlier defined for 
>Mafia, perhaps not quite honestly but only in order not to have to have sex 
>with her, as "hardly a man: somebody who lies back and takes it from 
>objects, like any passive woman" (288).

This debate between Benny and Rachel is clearly pivitol.  It reveals the 
heart of each side's world-view, of which Benny's, we here learn, was formed 
in one of the earliest "real" (but not in time) scenes of the book.  This 
debate should be closely followed for what it reveals.  I'll post some 
thoughts later today with a "Summary of Sorts" (I've been an absent host) 
for Chapter 13.

>But his recognition that "everybody is some kind of schlemihl" (384) is 
>possibly an indication of positive progress for Benny

Sorry, but look again.  That was Rachel's voice, and central to their 
debate.

David Morris


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