V2nd, C3

[Mark Kohut]

Stencil is a child of the 20th century---born about the time Adams wrote The 
Education. 


I would say reflexiively that Stencil is P's personification of some of Adams' 
thoughts on how
history is what it is.....(more on this later). He ain't Adams; Adams is his 
dad, so to speak. 


One other resonance to Stencil's name, I'd add: one reason Adams' book has 
lasted is that
he did pin down real "patterns" in American history--in this book, 
self-judgingly NOT in his 12-volume
history.....

Grant's admin   ===  some commentators compared Dyuba's admin to Grant's....

I had heard of the financial crisis of 1893...knew nothin bout 
it..............Adams gives us
something---how it almost bankrupted his family, for one----then adds that 
'saving' the system
[bailout, anyone?] meant the rats were saved with the mice [little guys]. 

And more.



----- Original Message ----
From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, July 15, 2010 2:00:25 PM
Subject: V2nd, C3

If we are to read Stencil by Alice's reductionist take as merely a
20th century Adams, where do we go with him with him from here? What
is the educational value of these exercises in which Stencil engages,
if they are only allusions to earlier American lit? Is there anything
more to any of this? Or is it just a game of allusions?

Yusef the factotum:

  1.    {dag}a. In L. phrases: Dominus factotum, used for ‘one who
controls everything’, a ruler with uncontrolled power; Johannes
factotum, a Jack of all trades, a would-be universal genius. Also fig.
  {dag}b. One who meddles with everything, a busybody.    c. In mod.
sense: A man of all-work; also, a servant who has the entire
management of his master's affairs. (OED).

Is Yusef a Joseph? Scorned by his brothers, sold into slavery in
Egypt, where he interprets Pharoah's dreams, rising thus to a status
of factotum in the Empire? No? Is he just another yibbler, fantasizing
within the fantasy a violent overthrow that can never happen, or never
cease?

This is the second mention of Victoria Wren, and her first appearance
"in the flesh," which is enough to captivate Yusef. She is a "balloon
girl," "lighter than the rest of her world," who has enough going on
to use basic phrases in the local language. She perches herself at the
apex of an isoceles triangle with Goodfellow, Porpentine, Mildred & co
(forming a rather complex V).

The spy v. spy narrative develops with Count Khevenmhuller-Metsch
chatting up his Russian counterpart M. de Villiers. The political
complexities of the French-Russian relationship are thus a part of the
complexities of a triangle with Austria as a third partner. Lepsius
appears in his 'blue-tinted spectacles and a false nose." His
appearance, or the manner thereof precipitates Porpentine's acrobatic
tumble. His only words are to do with V.W.'s good looks.

Now, if Yusef is merely Stencil who is merely Adams, what does this
imagining do to increase his education?
Is he wiser about V. W.? or the social morass of middle-eastern
political intrigue?
Is there any possibility that young Thomas Pynchon is doing more than
aping the past? Can he be developing a tableau of individuals in
society?


-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."