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

[Mark Kohut]

Laura notices and asks:
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?

Much more to comment on, but first this. "The Balloon is Up", yes, is slang for 
war is engaged.....this go-round I also noticed, as if for the first time, 
Victoria as a 'baloon-girl' and associated that inevitably with our Chums in 
AtD.....Their patriotic, gasbag of American "ideals",  balloon which is how wars 
get justified by all countries................................


----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Fri, November 19, 2010 1:53:29 PM
Subject: Re: V--2nd, Chapter 11 p.324 A room is all that is the case

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"?