V-2nd - 2: Part II - questions, comments?

[kelber at mindspring.com]

1. Here's the description of the young man Esther picks up at Fergus' party:

"the fraternity boy just out of an Ivy League school who knows he will never stop being a fraternity boy as long as he lives.  But who still feels he is missing something ... If he is going into management he writes.  If he is an engineer or an architect why he paints or sculpts.  He will straddle the line, aware up to the point of knowing he is getting the worst of both worlds, but never stopping to wonder why there should ever have been a line, or even if there is a line at all."

Young Pynchon, technical writer at Boeing and aspiring novelist, mocking himself, or at least rejecting that which he's been?

2.  In response to a query about whether V. might be Stencil's mother, the response:  The question is ridiculous.

It's ambiguous whether Stencil says this out loud to Margravine or Pynchon-the-narrator is stating it.  Why is the question ridiculous?  Because it's obvious that she is?  Because it's obvious she isn't?  Because there's no way to know?  What does Stencil think?

3.  Speaking of narration, this whole Stencil-and Margravine sequence makes us wonder if Stencil himself isn't, in fact, the narrator of the whole book, or at least sections of it.  The odd way that Pynchon introduces  the dialogue format, seemingly moves on, but then pretends we're still within that dialogue ["V. for Victory," the Margravine had inserted playfully], combined with Stencil's habit of talking about Stencil in the third person.

Getting back to the discussion between Robin, Mike B. and Alice (who or what is Alice?) about whether the narratorial voice can be considered a character, it does seem that there's a difference in tone between Chapters 1 and 2.  Could Profane and/or Pynchon be narrating Chapter 1, while the character Stencil assumes the narrator-ship of Chapter 2?  Look at the differing portrayals of Rachel in the two chapters:  Weird but mesmerizing, horny chick in Profane's chapter; deeply contemplative woman in Stencil's.

4.The June Disturbances, in which the elder Stencil perished:

"7th June known as Sette Giugno, this is in remembrance of the riots of 1919 when the Maltese population revolted against the British government to obtain some form of representative government."

http://maltadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/06/sette-giugno-7th-june-1919.html

Colonialism is seeping into the narrative and remains one of Pynchon's most persistent themes to this day.