MDDM Ch. 32 Twins (children again)

[Terrance]

Pynchon's doubled children




  >From Twins: Nature's Amazing Mystery, Doubles; Studies in
  Literary History and Multiple
  Personality and the Disintegration of Literary Character) 

  The etymology of the word "twin" is as follows: Old English
  twinn, meaning twofold, double, two by two; akin to Old High
  German zwinal, born a twin, and Middle English getwin.
  Modern English dictionaries define the verb twin as to match
  or to link together one with another, or to divide one into
  two equal parts. Literature through the centuries has
  displayed a similar multiplicity of meaning when dealing
  with twins and the whole issue of doubling. 

  Certain themes tend to prevail in literature dealing with
  twins and doubling.

  1) Twins are so much alike that no one can tell them apart.
  This causes mistaken identity crises and/or the substitution
  of one twin for another. 

      Some examples 
    1.Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 
    2.The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas 
    3.Esao and Jacob by Machado de Assiz 

  2) Two unrelated, though physically similar "astro-twins"
  pass for twins and switch identities and substitute each
  other's lives "for fun or profit." Often one will
  impersonate the other and tarnish his or her reputation, as
  with the "imposter" motif. 

      Examples 
    1.The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain 
    2.Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain 

  3) Twin births come as the big unexpected event in the life
  of a family, and surprises everyone, "especially the
  husband, boyfriend or lover." 

  4) Good twin versus Evil twin (or just evil twins) 

      Example 
    1.Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 



  Besides dealing with a literal pair of twins, many works
  present stories of individuals with strange "doubles" or
  multiple personalities. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by RL
  Stevenson is the classic example of this metaphor of the
  second self. This hallucinated double conjures up old world
  supersticions about about a doppelganger, or one's imaginary
  twin. Such doubles in literature are both imagined and flesh
  and blood, but the concept of a "double" offers great
  potential for confronting social taboos and deviant
  behavior, psychological problems, and for pushing the limits
  of reality. 

  A passage from Doubles; Studies in Literary History,
  summarizes the utter ambiguiousness of the "double" in
  literature 

      There can be no satisfying short description of what
  doubles are, or of what they have become in shedding some
  part of their supernatural origins, as harbingers of evil
  and death, and growing into an element of individual
  psychology and a domestic feature.  But it is time to repeat
  that they have often been about running away, and revenge,
  when these pursuits are enjoined and prevented, when they
  are left to the imagination. One self does what the other
  can't; one self is meek while the other one is
  fierce...Doubles may appear to come from outside...or from
  inside...within these  complications must surely lie an
  attempt to disclaim responsibility for events and    crises
  which are internal to the individual but in which his
  environment will alwa    seem to take part.

  More twins/doubles in literature

  Twins 

    1.The Bobsey Twins adventure series by_______ 
    2.On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin 
    3.The Solid Mandala by Patrick White 
    4.Success by Martin Amis 
    5.Princess Daisy by Judith Krantz 
    6.Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon 
    7.Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal 

  Multiple personality/physical forms

    1.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stephenson 
    2.Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 
    3.Sybil by Schreiber 
    4.The Story of Ruth by Morton Schatzman 
    5.The Three faces of Eve by Thigpen and Cleckley 
    6.The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
    7.Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
    8.Orlando by Virginia Wolff 
    9.Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

  Double lives 

    1.She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith 
    2.Dracula by Bram Stoker 
    3.Double Agent by Joseph Conrad 

  Metaphysical doubles, blurred bodies 

    1.A Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde 
    2.The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad 
    3.William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe 

  The double in various forms is found in V., CL, VL, M&D, and
  GR. Charles Hohmann notes that in GR, the double applies
  mostly to children. 

See 

 Tanner, Slade, Levine, Fowler, Strehle, Kaufman, Gary Thompson....