IVIV (1) "She came along the alley and up the back steps ..."

[Tore Rye Andersen]

> "She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always
> used to." (IV, Ch. 1, p. 1)

This differs somewhat from Pynchon's other first lines, which can more
or less be grouped into two different categories:
 
1) The first lines of V., Lot 49 and VL all introduce an important
character by his/her full name and situates him/her in a specific time 
and/or place:
 
"Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket,
sneakers and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia."
 
"One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware 
party [...]."
 
"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted 
awake [...]."
 
Welcome, dear reader, here's a new character, this is what s/he's called,
and this is where s/he's at.
 
2) The first lines of Pynchon's Big Three tend to be more abstract or 
impersonal. No named characters are introduced, and the emphasis is on 
actions or objects or concepts.
 
"A screaming comes across the sky."
 
"Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs [...]."
 
"Now single up all lines!"
 
The first line of IV is closest to the first category, in that it 
introduces a character, but it differs significantly from them in
the familiarity, almost intimacy, it implies. Not "Shasta Fay Hepworth
came along the alley," but "she" came along the alley, as if we already 
knew her. The intimacy is underscored by that "the way she always used
to." It's almost as if we've been here before. So IV's intro is not like
the gentle, more or less traditional introductions from category 1. It's
more like we're thrown right into the thick of it, from an intimate  
perspective which in these first few lines seems close to Doc's.
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