VV(11): Amble

[Dave Monroe]

And so we've arrived at Chapter 8 of V. by Thomas Pynchon (1963), "In
which Rachel gets her yo-yo back, Roony sings a song, and Stencil calls
on Bloody Chiclitz."  Which is not a bad summary of the chapter at hand
for a wedge of words arranged in the shape of a top o'er the inevitable
"V" pointed at the narrative below, although it does neglect other
noteworthy Ch. 8 events to be discussed in due time ...

By the way, I'm using primarily the Harper & Row Perennial Fiction (or,
more recently, Perennial Library) ed. these days, as that seems the
standard 'round these parts, but if anyone needs pagination for the more
recent Perennial Classics and/or the older Bantam eds., let me know, and
perhaps I'll post a la J. Kerry Grant (A Companion to V.) ...

Which means that, for the next two weeks, I'll at least be discussing
primarily PC225/PF213/B197 to PC241/PF228/B211, that definitely not
excluded set of numbers being the Perennial Fiction/Library pagination. 
I'll be skipping the line numbers, figuring that, if I can land you all
on the correct page, at least, you ought to have no trouble finding your
way around ...

But rather than further summarize the chapter myself, I'm more
immediately interested in summarizing the critical commentary
thereupon.  Which shouldn't take long, as, at least in my limited
experience with the Pynchon Industry, said commentary is nigh unto
nonexistent.  Apart from that Robert Holton paper I put out a call for
(and now have, thanks, and any other exceptions would be appreciated), 
Chapter 8 seems largely to have been something to ignore on the way from
Chapter 7 to Chapter 9 ...

Which is perhaps understandable.  Between the baroque machinations of
Ch. 7, "She hangs on the western wall," and the portentious events of
Ch. 9, "Mondaugen's Story"--both among the longest chapters in the book,
by the way--Ch. 8 is a seemingly trivial transition, and yet ... and
yet, not only is it chock full o' interesting bits of characterization,
significant pieces of information, not to mention those prodigiously
pregnant allusions those Pynchonian texts abound in, it's also crucially
placed in the novel ...

Think of the "V. structure" of the novel itself, and not in the least
the "V." it forms when one opens the damn book to Chapter 8, and, esp.,
the end of Chapter 8.  Note that the novel as a whole has sixteen
chapters, plus an "Epilogue."  Think of that epilogue as the period
(".") after the "V," and you might also notice that the cusp, fold,
singularity, whatever of that "V" occurs just after Chapter 8.  Esp. in
that Perennial Fiction/Library ed., where Ch. 8 ends ca. midway down p.
228, more or less precisely halfway to p. 555.  But the numbers are
pretty close in any given ed., so ...

So one  might expect a little something from such an otherwise seemingly
insignificant little chapter nonetheless.  I'm hoping we'll find here
what perhaps that (those) little  something(s) might be ...