VV(18): Melanie l'Heuremaudit

[Samuel Moyer]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at hotmail.com>

Subject: VV(18): Melanie l'Heuremaudit


> First off, pardon mon lack of diacritical marks, but ... but
L'Heuremaudit,
> of course, means "cursed hour," which not only foreshadows
Francophonically
> her foul, frightful fate (sorry, going all Stan Lee here) at the end of
Ch.
> 14, not only echoes the chronometric theme with which the chapter began
(and
> is echoed in turn in Gravity's Rainbow by the so-called "Radiant Hour"),
but
> also perhaps picks up that aesthetic, poetic thread I've been following
> here, those allusions to early modernism, early modernists, e.g.,
> Symbolists, Symbolism, that seem to pervade Pynchon's novel.
>

As you say, her name is interesting... maudit... cursed... the sense of it
is 'rejected from God' and her life seems cursed this way.  If you think of
this name as a reference to her soul... cursed/damned/ rejected by God, and
combine it with other symbols from the chapter, the clock (even her name
l'heure) and "Melanie in the Mirror" then you might recall Rachel at
Shoenmaker's office.  pp 45-46 "Directly across from Rachel was a mirror,
hung high on the wall, and under the mirror a shelf which held a
turn-of-the-century clock."  .... "Rachel was looking into the mirror at an
angle of 45 degrees, and so had a view of the face turned toward the room
and the face on the other side, reflected in the mirror; here were time and
reverse-time, co-existing, canceling one another exactly out."  It goes
on....

It has been about 5 weeks since we were talking about space/time and
history, but here it is again.

Mirrors reflect the world as it is; can be seen as a symbol of
self-contemplation (I am cutting from JE Cirlot's Dictionary of Symbols).
"The cosmos appears as a large Narcissus regarding his own reflections in
the human consciousness.  Now, the world, as a state of discontinuity
affected by the laws of change and substitution, is the agent which projects
this quasi-negative, kaleidoscopic image of appearance and disappearance
reflected in the mirror."
also, "At times, it takes the mythic form of a door through which the soul
may free itself 'passing' to the other side: see Lewis Carroll in _Alice
through the Looking Glass_.
(Cirlot p. 211)

Here is what is written for Clock:  "...As a machine, the clock is related
to the notions of perpetual motion, automata, mechanism and to the magical
creation of beings that pursue their own autonomous existence. (Cirlot, 50)

I also am recalling the false Eye of the Bad Priest with the clock traced
into it (I forget how)... and it was mentioned earlier (jbor post on 5/5)
that I look at Eigenvalue's meditations on the crests and folds of time
which I have not done yet...  This had been related to a discussion of
Fausto's retelling of his past and the Space/Time Employment Agency.

There is more to be said about the symbolism here, but how do I wrap this up
into a meaningful conclusion?  I don't.  But I do want to throw this out as
we are looking at Melanie - as she looks at her reflection... Maybe my ideas
about how TRP uses Time and Space will be more clear by the time we get to
the Water Spout in the Epilogue... or maybe not.

Sam