V2nd, C3

[Mark Kohut]

Still thinkiing it through...there is a barely perceptible line between 
thinking I underrstand what Laura wrote and understanding it...

I only want to throw out an impression..............and, a time-travel allusion, 

so to speak.

Impression: One feeling I have had in reading this eightth section is of when 
Slothrop dissolves.....??
 
The eye remark rung a perception of a Nabokov novel......not in English until 
1965!...(can TRP read Russian too?)
Or, did he so enter Nabokov's creativity, ala Stencil, that he could do a single 
chapter, or single scene version in the sixties?
Or, as Zeitsuss might say , it was in the Zeitgeist?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_(novel)
The novel deals largely with indeterminate locus of identity and the social 
construction of identity in the reactions and opinions of others. Smurov exists 
as a fraud, nobleman, scoundrel, "sexual adventurer", thief and spy in the eyes 
of the various characters. As the protagonist carefully collects these 
observations, he attempts to build a stable perspective on Smurov—whom we only 
belatedly discover is the narrator himself.
 





----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Tue, July 20, 2010 1:41:43 PM
Subject: RE: V2nd, C3

The eighth section is different from the others, in that there's no 
proxy-character for Stencil.  Stencil's finally attained something (wisdom?  the 

object of his knightly quest?). The narratorial voice in this section is 
dispassionate; it summarizes without expressing any opinions, emotions or 
flights of fancy - until the closing sentences of the section and chapter:  
Vision must be the last to go, etc.  It's the voice of someone describing 
exactly what he sees.  Stencil himself is THERE.

Stencil jumps into this series of projections with a question on his mind.  He's 

lying on Bongo-Shaftsbury the Younger's couch, musing about a time in the past 
when his host's father murdered a man named Porpentine.  What (we can guess he's 

wondering) might this have to do with V.?  Does he have his answer at the end? 


"There must also be a nearly imperceptible line between an eye that reflects and 

an eye that receives."  Stencil's finally crossed that line.  He doesn't need a 
proxy protagonist any more, he sees exactly what he needs to.  That we don't 
necessarily get it doesn't matter.  What is it he "gets?"  That Victoria was a 
normal girl who got mixed up romantically with Goodfellow the spy.  Now that 
Goodfellow's partner is dead and he's, perhaps, on the run, is this the moment 
when she turns to Bongo-Shaftsbury (spy and partial cyborg) for comfort, sealing 

her fate?  Something along those lines.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>

>
>
>Ian noted Stencil's 8 skins & the 8 points of the Malta cross. 
> 
>Each point on the cross corresponds to one of "the eight obligations or 
>aspirations of the knights, namely 'to live in truth, have faith, repent one’s 
>sins, give proof of humility, love justice, be merciful, be sincere and 
>whole­hearted, and to endure persecution'".
> 
>Does this compare Stencil's quest with knightly quests? The 2 knightly quests 
>that first pop to my mind are the quest for the holy grail and Quixote's quest 
>for love.
> 
>If we push the idea perhaps further than we should: Does each of Stencil's 8 
>projections embody (or correspond with) 1 of the 8 knightly 
>obligations/aspirations?
> 
>In section 4 (the train scene), for example, does Waldetar (Stencil's 4th 
>projection) achieve or aspire to "give proof of humility"? Perhaps 
>Waldetar/Stencil does this in philosophizing that "soul cannot commend no-soul" 

>and in thinking that souls are "at the mercy of the earth and the seas" and that 
>
>souls "need a God to keep them from harm"? (Which, by the way, is part of why it 
>
>is so creepy when the "human" turns out to be an electric doll....)
> 
>Another idea that is easy to push farther than it should probably be pushed: A 
>chessboard is 8x8...
> 
>On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:45:25 -0700, Ian (igrlivingston at gmail.com) wrote:
>> The Maltese cross has more relevance to this chapter than is apparent.
>> Here is a bit of explanation:
>>
>> http://www.guidetomalta.net/malta-history/maltese-cross/
>>
>> Note especially paragraph three and the discussion of the eight points
>> of the cross, keeping in mind Stencil's eight skins in this chapter.
>> Also, Malta, as Michael notes, is in the center of the Mediterranean.
>> That alone made it strategically desirable to the lords of
>> intercontinental warfare in times past.                         
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