m&m's in V

[Joseph Tracy]

I begin to think this story is more intriguing for which qualities endure  in his later work, than for its own merit. 1)The overall moral context seems  like a reworked puritanism ,2) the protagonist is difficult to sympathize with,3) the symbolic exploitation of tribal humans is  the ground of western decadence,  and comfort along with its troubled conscience, 4) the pig is a mascot for the dark unruly  appetite driven underbelly of western order,  5) the importance of digression 6) the importance of names 7) the WSC  as a microcosm of  dangerous chaotic, culturally aberrant, disaffected modes of interaction 8) capital V in the title 9) paranoia about role and identity.

10)There is also something about the way the protagonist accumulates layers of priestly significance  which reminds me of GR. 


I agree with jbor that the bloodbath is a  juvenile device but there are some characters and themes which are revisited with only minor changes to their fundamental role in Pynchon's imagination, though  each is taken up by the mature writer in much greater depth and complexity. I think it also fails as a story  because in a story laden with moral symbolism there is no moral reason for Siegels survival. If this is intentional  the story becomes more interesting , but he fails to convince me it is intentional. 





Joseph Tracy
brook7 at earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
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