ATDDTA (3): Control issues, 54-56

[David Morris]

On 2/16/07, robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
> Of course, they are also the same particular "they" that's everywhere in Pynchon, but to a concentrated degree in GR, COL49 and AtD. I'm sure that V.'s in there somewhere, just haven't got around to plowing through one again.

I don't think V really has a "They" so much as an "It."  That It
being the V-Dynamo, so in a sense in his first novel Pynchon HAS
deified his demon.

But V does very prominently deal with the issue of "growing up,"
spoken by Stencil's father (Hugh?) to the incarnation of V (don't have
the book here) at the siege.  As I see it, the young virgin V back in
Venice becomes enthralled with Hugh's description of his Vheissu
adventure, and that is what inspires her to pursue her journeys which
transform her eventually into the partially inanimate evil priest.  At
the siege she protests to Hugh, "but you had YOUR Vheissu!"  At which
he responds to the effect, "we all need to grow up."  I've never
really know what exactly Pynchon meant by this, but I think that AtD
will shed some light on this theme.

David Morris