Iron Queen

[Carvill John]

Someone asked about the 'iron queen' at the start of GRGR. Before the recent 
abortive attempt at a GR Group Read breathed its last, I submitted my one 
and only post containing some notes on the first section. Amidst the noise 
generated around such old chestnuts as whether or not Pynchon deals with the 
holocaust in GR, my post generated a grand total of zero responses (sniff). 
Here's the bit about iron queens, metal, etc.:

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2. Girders

Again, the iron queen has been much discussed, compelling suggestions
including Queen Victoria and thus Victoria Station. Notice 'queen' is
not capitalised, neither is 'iron' for that matter. This strikes me as
being a typically impressionistic fragment of a dream, where you get a
very strong sense of something that would be difficult or impossible to
relate clearly to someone else.  This sort of potent, allusive imagery
is also characteristic of the experience generated by psychedelic drugs
such as certain types of mushrooms - those 'pharmaceutical plants'. In
addition to the queen, there is a lot of metal in the opening pages,
iron, lead, rust, etc. Then Pirate wakes up and his skull feels
metallic. Later of course there's that metallic Tchitcherine, and that
other sleigh-carriage, with its multiple levels and its "velvet
saloons".

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0510&msg=98698