VLVL2 (1): Annotations (pp. 3 - 4)

[Michael Joseph]

>
> 3.3 "a squadron of blue jays"  A suggestion of military aircraft, which
> will become important later in the novel; also corresponds to the
> "flight" motif found in the opening sentences of GR and M&D.
>
> 3.4 - 3.8 "In his dream ..."  Zoyd's dream of carrier pigeons is
> essentially a dream of missed communication, an opportunity to receive a
> message (rescue?), but an inability to get to them. Throughout the
> novel, watch for additional hidden signals and "missed communications,"
> a recurring motif in this work (and other Pynchon novels).
>

Must remember that bird references are ubiquitous in VL, and tend to be
associated with the communication of stories and ideas, often of an
ahistorical kind (see for ex the story telling parrot on p. 223). The
militant jays (which figure symbolically in the ending) conspicuously
contrast with the pigeons - TP is tipping his hand that he is working
within a dialectic. Jays are among the most aggressive and striking
looking of birds while pigeons are commonplace, rather dirty, but a member
of the dove family and thus associated with peace. I believe (must check
this later), whereas jays will disrupt other bird's nests, pigeons mate
for life, an obvious contrast between domestic felicity and potential
domestic tragedy. (And sonically, pigeon = Pynchon) PIgeons are also
associated with messaging in other ways, i.e. stool pigeons, and, of
course, with being a victim; jays are militant, of this world, while
pigeons are badly suited to this world, i.e. icons of another world. It's
interesting that Pynchon describes Zoyd's inability to read or understand
the message of the other-worldly pigeons a the beginning of his own book,
seemingly an ironic invocation to readers, and that he uses the phrase,
"but none of whom . . . he could ever get get to in time." The contrast is
subtly made between what doesn't understand "in time," that is the
profane, and what might understand 'out of time,' the sacred.


Michael