V.V. (12) Eigenvalue's "single interruption"

[jbor]

Eigenvalue interrupts Stencil at 249.19, and their conversation is recounted
parenthetically. Eigenvalue asks about the language Godolphin & Vera were
speaking, and whether Kurt knew English then. Somewhat khyboshed by this
fair question, Stencil's sulky outburst is "forestalled" by the patient
psychodontist, but after a moment Herbert has settled down enough to reply,
rather inscrutably: "Stencil called it serendipity, not he. Do you
understand? Of course you do. ... "

I'm not sure that I do, Herb.

Anyways, Eigenvalue then makes a significant observation about Stencil's
apparent "ambivalence" towards V.

Q. How perceptive, or reliable, is Eigenvalue here? What *is* Stencil's
"attitude" towards V? Is he really ambivalent to all these tales of cruelty
and debauchery and goldfish-stoning? How do readers feel about the various
female V's to this point? (I tend to feel more sympathy for her the further
into the text we get.) What is Pynchon's "attitude"?

best