paola.2 spoilers

[Swing Hammerswing]

In M&D Pynchon turns to Paul again. Thomas is tired. Paul! Yes Pynchon turns 
to Paul again, from his first novel to his last, it is Paul.

Paola also seems to embody all sorts of women, some stereotypes, most of 
them thrust upon her by deck-dancing pig men, but that Mockingbird song, her 
parallels to Fina, are positive stereotypes of the African-American female.


"American movies had given them stereotypes all, all but Paola Maijstral…

She was taken as bride by Pappy Hod when she was quite young, sixteen she 
said, but her birth records were destroyed along with most of the buildings 
on her island of Malta. Pappy lied about her age and her nationality and 
borrowed 500-700 from Mac the cook to bring her stateside.  She was a 
bartender there, the Metro Bar, on Strait street. The Gut. Valletta, Malta,


She wanted out of Malta, every Mediterranean barmaid's deftness, to marry 
out, to get out of hell, to go,  perhaps to America, a land of Peace.  To go 
some place where "there was enough food, warm clothes, heat all the time, 
buildings all in one piece."

As the piggish and riggish Pappy Hod is describing her to his deck apes, to 
amuse them, he seems to almost  wake up to the fact that the score, the 
calculated, purchased relationship, he has been in, may not figure so easily 
now. This doesn't prevent him from abusing her, cheating on her and beating 
her.

And what is Pig Bodine's interest in the girl? Wants to take her on his 
Bike, replace a love object for a love object, to the West.

To the grave of Sailors, (comic,  parodic, fantastic, and tragic) where the 
degeneration of the Virgin Mary towards the inanimate is the spirit that 
presides over the ceremonies and rituals there. The  Profane maternal  power 
of the mechanical bride, the machinery that produces Hollywood legs and WASP 
noses and stereotypes, is swollen with buffoonery and the mockery of that 
holy night, Christmas Eve, where a hymn celebrating the Virgin, her gift of 
Peace, is disconnected like a juke box by the atheist Pig
Bodine and the parodic celebration, the ritual that is "suck hour", where 
white foam flows from rubber breasts, causes Mrs. Buffo, Beatrice(s),  a 
comic profanation of Dante's Virgin light and guide to Peace & Paradise, to 
undertake a crying jag, an inhuman blubbering, and the carnage sends Paola, 
the
girl from one of the most bombarded island in history,  down to the floor 
where she presses her face against Profane's leg and pleads for a little 
peace while Pig Bodine sits in as voyeur until the shore patrol  shows up, 
when he says, "grab the broad", meaning Paola, and takes off, by chance,  in 
the direction they are heading.


At Teflon's ( Pig's friend who takes soft porno photos) place Paolo is in 
shock, her needs manage to bring out the healing and sympathetic talents of 
Benny, talents he doesn't really have but for Paola,  but now  Dewey and Pig 
lust after the girl, asking for sloppy seconds, as if they could meet her 
needs. Profane suggests that she is trying to recover from her abuse at the 
hands of men, that's why she's with Benny after all, a fat ameba with pig's 
eyes, but Pig Bodine rejects the explanation. Profane sees in her eyes 
something we will learn more about, her refusal to share a bed, but asks him 
to be good to her. Teflon and camera send them out in the snow, where it's 
not cold but Paola can't stop shivering, and Benny seems to have used up his 
transient sympathetic talent and so he doesn't comfort her. She presses 
against him on the ferry, but he is alienated from the living, she ends up 
dancing the dirty boogie with Pig and taking comfort
in the company of women, one of the Beatrices and on New Years, when Benny 
asks her about the para's song, the para, who had haunted the week, she 
says, "Je suis ne. Being Born."

Paola was born on Malta.


As with all the women in this novel we should ask, What is her relationship 
to V? At this point it is hard to say, but I suspect that she is an 
important character and that the dark days of V may be countered or 
counterbalanced not by Sphere and stoicism but by a collection of women in 
the novel (not that we should discount their unique qualities) and that this 
enigmatic female force, Paola,  may function as Nora and a collection of 
women do in GR. Paola seems to possess something very human, some human 
value, being born. Each of us is born, unique, individuals, vulnerable.

If we are to understand Sphere, we must, I think, understand Paolo. She is 
introspective and critical
and she will develop the ability to analyze her own actions and then, if 
only then,  take responsibility for them.  Paola's Maltese heritage and 
experience during the war help to mold her attitudes.

Maijstral writes to Paola, that "having been abandoned so early to a common 
underground, questions of want or possession never occurred to you."

There's your anti-capitalism. See Max Weber on Catholic anti-capitalism and 
the forgiveness of sin.

Sailing away with Paul,

The carpenter Swinging



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