Fw: V-2nd C3

[Mark Kohut]

ian writes: 
"Right off the bat, we learn that V. is what gives Stencil his focus,
the meaning of his presence, if you will. The Golden Bough and the
White Goddess get prominent mention as Stencil uses them as a
dismissal of his actual pursuit of V.: “He would dream perhaps once a
week that it had all  een a dream, and that now he’s awakened to
discover the pursuit of V. was merely a scholarly quest after all, an
adventure of the mind, in the tradition of The Golden Bough or The
White Goddess” (61, Vintage, 2000 edition) . He dreams that it is
merely an academic pursuit, but, in fact, it is deeper, more personal
and, well...."


Speculative possible connections between.

Adams is always doing something new (toward his Education) into his 
thirties....but whatever
he does is NOT part of his (ideal) Education..................So, might they be 
seen as 

impersonations?

Why does P have that twice-wakening dream bit?.....Henry James' twice-born 
notion?...
At least, to tell the reader that the intellectual truths---dreams reveal 
truths, mostly, in Pynchon---
are now personal, deeper (as Ian writes below--and above) ....REAL?...the quest 
is on?

Seems to be Pynchon as author signifying Stencil's quest is his...........yes?






 


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sun, July 11, 2010 3:45:55 PM
Subject: Re: V-2nd C3

I’ll pick up by way of responding to a question tied over from Laura:
“So has Young Pynchon based Young Stencil solely on Adams?  He's still
very much at the borrowing stage in V. - borrowing from his own early
work, from Baedeker's, and from Adams.  Did Young Pynchon think:
Adams was out of place in his times - what if I create an Adams
prototype who's out of place in these times (1950s)?”

Looking at “chapter three. In which Stencil, a quick-change artist,
does eight impersonations,” I think there is more to Stencil than his
name and his Henriness. By way of a gloss on the introductory section:

Right off the bat, we learn that V. is what gives Stencil his focus,
the meaning of his presence, if you will. The Golden Bough and the
White Goddess get prominent mention as Stencil uses them as a
dismissal of his actual pursuit of V.: “He would dream perhaps once a
week that it had all  een a dream, and that now he’s awakened to
discover the pursuit of V. was merely a scholarly quest after all, an
adventure of the mind, in the tradition of The Golden Bough or The
White Goddess” (61, Vintage, 2000 edition) . He dreams that it is
merely an academic pursuit, but, in fact, it is deeper, more personal
and, well....

Stencil is “capering along behind her, bells ajingle, waving a wooden,
toy oxgoad. For no one’s amusement but his own.” For which see,
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.4peaks.com/10.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.4peaks.com/ppox.htm&usg=__u0LzEAWCyXXNEXb1XR_o9vwBv_Y=&h=350&w=274&sz=6&hl=en&start=13&sig2=Q7zbXY1T2bTfMjnL2HkOAg&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=NsO8hr4ZW3tuJM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dzen%2Box%2Bherding%2Bpictures%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel%3Ds%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=OmY3TI7oAdTNjAer6pjzAw

(Holy smokes that’s a long address!)

We learn, similarly, that Herbert’s is a mere pastiche of sleuthing
and that it is more important that he is Stencil, than it is that he
bears some superficial resemblance to Henry Adams. His use of the
third person is neither out of a an affected self-reflexion, nor a
pretension to royal superiority, but a “forcible dislocation of
personality” (62), and even this is apparently meaningless. Of course,
there are hazards to too readily dismissing any reference Pynchon
offers. I think it is safe to say that if he refers or alludes to it,
he likely read it, and it can likely, then, be counted as an influence
on his work. The degree of that influence is open at all times for
debate.

His histories, if you will, are typically Fresian: matters of
historiography, not of fact, necessarily, just stories about the past
that might have been, based on his researches, which center on “the
island of Malta, where his father had died, where Hebert had never
been....” (62). See the Maltese cross for an illustration of this
characteristic:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2007/08/maltese_cross.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/6065&h=600&w=600&sz=93&tbnid=pYHSLMfoakLbBM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaltese%2Bcross&usg=__Z3LLCurorIhVyITxonPjlPXDT70=&sa=X&ei=M2s3TN_XLIWcsQPPtbRS&ved=0CCcQ9QEwAw

(Holy cow! It’s another winner!) Everything points to the center. Of
course, this is the only clear reference to Malta in this chapter (I
think), and it may work here as an indicator both of young Stencil’s
position in the world, and as recollection of the above stated
significance of V. in Herbert’s life.

And, by way of Herbert’s only souvenir of Malta we embark on a very
interesting tour of possible perspectives in an imagined history.

-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."