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

[David Morris]

I never saw this balloon thread in V before.  But I think it's
important to contrast Paola from V.  Paola is the earthy female.  V.
is the opposite.

Young Victoria is the starting point of the V-transformation.  Her
brush with Old Stencil, when he tells her of his journey to Vheissu,
is the beginning of her quest, leading ultimately to her Bad Priest
anti-carnation.  So she is willfully pursuing her own Vheissu, but as
one infected/transformed by the things you list below.

David Morris

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 12:53 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> 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