Bianca

[Monte Davis]

Laura:

>  I agree that the Bianca/Slothrop scene, disturbing/erotic as 
> it may be, is loaded with subtext, but how about the scene in 
> V where Profane has sex with a jaded, street-wise teenaged 
> (14-year-old?) girl on a pool-table (sorry, can't find my 
> copy of V right now, so I can't give direct quotes).

That'd be Lucille, first section of Ch. 6. She's described only as a
teenager, no age specified but no special emphasis on youth. You may be
thinking of Fina, also not that young (she has a job as a secretary) but
often characterized in little-sister terms as well as madonna-ish virgin;
the same chapter includes her failed attempt to seduce Profane and later her
gang-rape by the Playboys. When I think of creepy/transgressive sexuality in
V. I think first of Mondaugen in Sudwest, Melanie L'Heuremaudit, Esther's
surgery, and the dismantling of the Bad Priest. Your mileage may vary.  

I should say that I find considerable stretches of V. -- especially the
yo-yoing and bopping around in NYC -- slack, arbitrary, and short on the
"progressive *knotting into*" of the next four novels. Amazing for a
~25-year-old, and of course I'd give an arm to have written any of its best
parts -- it's just not up to the standard he *would* set. I was too young
for hipster or beat culture, Kerouac etc, and a lot of the hanging out in V.
just leaves me waiting for something more than happenstance to happen. (I
react the same way to much of The Last Detail, for what that's worth.)

That Lucille/Fina chapter begins: "Women had always happened to Profane the
schlemihl like accidents: broken shoelaces, dropped dishes, pins in new
shirts." I wince more at that today than I did 40 years ago, but... bottom
line, all that the casual sex on the pool table shows me is Benny's
perversity in doing with Lucille (who doesn't matter to him) what he won't
do with Fina (who threatens to).