Martinez on "Under the Rose" and V.

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy all

There is something very strange about the Martinez article "From 'Under
the Rose' to V.: A Linguistic Approach to Human Agency in Pynchon's
Fiction". 

The writer submits the third chapter of V. to what looks (to a layman
such as myself) like a sophisticated analysis of the shifting points of
view of the narrative and the alienating, detatched use of language. He
notes that, among other things, the "story is presented from the
perspective of seven different focalizers in eight apparently
disconnected sections". 

I order to facilitate his analysis, Martinez completely detaches the
"story" part of chapter 3 from the novel. He never states the title of
the chapter ("In Which Stencil, A Quick Change Artist, Does Eight
Impersonations") and ignores the framing prologue that explicitly
identifies the tale a waking dream Stencil had once while "drowsing on
the sofa in Bongo-Shaftesbury's apartment" on Malta. Each of the
separate focalizers Martinez identifies are in fact voiced by the
single creating narrator Stencil. The alienating language Martinez
analyzes embodies Stencil's derangement, and his derangement and
impersonal mode of expression are not shared by other major characters
in V. What P has done is rework "Under the Rose" to make it perform a
role in the context of a larger work, and because he ignores this new
functional context Martinez must, at least in part, misinterpret P's
intentions and achievement.

On a positive note, the Martinez article is just the sort of thing I
look for on the P-list but rarely find: an examination of P's work on
the abstract level of technique —— an examination of P as a working
artist, rather than as a moral philosopher.

Cheers!
Mark



		
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