V--2nd, Chapter 11 p.324 A room is all that is the case

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Is V. making conscious decisions to be false or bad, or is she the hapless receptacle of all the excesses of the 20th century: colonialism (Cairo), conspiracy (Florence), genocide (Sudwest), high-tech war (Malta) - plus at least one more version coming up in Chapter 14?  When the children (the natural island children) cruelly strip her of all her prostheses, she becomes a fragile, pathetic human again.  The children scene is a disturbing one.  Rebellion of the oppressed?  Or is it some sort of Catholic parable about casting the first stone?

Here's an odd connection I noticed this go-round:  In Chapter 3, Part II, Young V. (Victoria) is described as a "balloon-girl" by revolutionary Yusef.  In the context of that chapter, it's not clear what that means.  He's just used the English phrase "Up goes the balloon," signifying - what?  The crossing of the Rubicon, the inevitability of war?  So Victoria is a balloon-girl in the sense that she's a girl version of the English war machine?  Or is he merely enchanted by her lightness?

Now, in Chapter 11, Fausto describes little Paola playing at war with the other island children:  "You, I believe, were an Italian dirigible.  The most buoyant balloon-girl in the stretch of sewer we occupied that season."  He sounds affectionate, but he's describing Paola as a wannabe militarist.  Is that what a balloon-girl is?

Thinking back to Benny's screw-in-the-navel dream, he bursts a balloon to find a screw-driver - a technological, rather than mystical solution to his problem that results in his ass falling off.  Balloons are bad.

Oddly, I had a co-worker once when I was working in a lab who had a terror of balloons.  She would tell any new person that, under no circumstances must they ever humorously blow up a latex lab glove as a balloon in front of her.  Balloons made her faint.  I asked her if it was a fear of being startled by the impending popping noise, but she said no.  Have absolutely no idea if her fear was rooted in past experience or some sort of metaphorical fear of change or shape-shifting.  Maybe Pynchon would understand it.

Laura




-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>
>anyway, moving on to something I can argue better:
>Fausto's vocation, or Fausto I's, and Fausto I himself, seems to have
>been interrupted by falling in love (not a bad thing...) but hasn't
>been forgotten:
>"We will return to this matter of vocation." (p 344)
>
>Meanwhile, within this written confession, Elena makes a confession to
>the Bad Priest (p 344-5) who at this moment we do not know to be V.
>
>And as V. has taken the confession of Godolphin before, now this
>incarnation or avatar of V. (and let's see, are there 4 V.'s - V in
>Egypt, in Florence, in Sudwest and in Malta - to match the 4 Faustos?
>I honestly do not know, you may remember I was talking about 3 Faustos
>a couple days ago...anyway, is this a mirroring effect?) - takes
>Elena's confession
>
>Honestly, I really am not real approving of V. ...
>
>she becomes a bad person because that seems like the only way to have
>an interesting life?
>
>her advice is a sort of parody of the Vocation that keeps Fausto from
>quickly and conclusively committing to Elena, tit for tat, sauce for
>the goose type of thing
>
>She's calling Elena away from love in the name of Jesus, the same way
>that the prospect of priesthod calls Fausto away!  She's invoking a
>feeling of sin and shame that "Only Christ was mighty enough, loving
>enough, forgiving enough [to ameliorate and cure]" (345)
>
>and what of Stencil in all this: "a mysterious being named Stencil"?