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

[Mark Kohut]

sometimes it seems to me too easy, wrong, to find some of the meanings we---I 
mean I, kemosabe--do
in Pynchon. Yet, meanings there are. We must see what we find and call ourselves 
out...

David is right on here about Paolo, imho, so I would see Paolo as the 
idealistic/innocent part of the balloon
metaphor.....

So, young Victoria has moved from idealistic/innocent to a harbinger of 
militarism as we will see 'cause she
changes much thoroughout this book. 


----- Original Message ----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: kelber at mindspring.com
Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Fri, November 19, 2010 2:22:59 PM
Subject: Re: V--2nd, Chapter 11 p.324 A room is all that is the case

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