V-2nd - Chapter 8 - Roony and Rachel

[Michael Bailey]

...sitting in a tree...

well, no, having a kaffeeklatsch.  (this was before Mr Coffee, and
quite likely she had an electric coffeepot with a chamber for grounds
on a stem that sort of plugged into the floor of the coffeepot, and a
little glass or plastic bubble on top that the coffee could be seen
perking up into...with a kitchen table and ashtrays and maybe a sugar
bowl and cream container...)

A neighborly chat.  Roony dressing down for the occasion, trying to
look lovesick and harried; with a convoluted plan, no doubt born of
his reveries about Paola, which instead of being discharged by rough
sex with his wife, have only been strengthened by it...

So how does Rachel greet him?  She's mildly hung over, and makes a
humorous religious reference: "It is a day of rest," she growled.
"What the hell."

Now Roony, obviously riffing on that, addresses her as "father-confessor."
At least on some level, he is pouring out his thoughts penitentially,
although since he isn't moored to that belief-system (not so's one
would notice), he's really just choosing that context to parlay his
subtext....

--- digression: since he is the king of the decky-dance, back in the
day didn't a lot of kings have their own confessors?  I mean it would
be this priest's main job to listen to and counsel this ruler?
---------

anyway: Rachel grabs this reference, and fugues it up, referring to
the psychodontia idea developed previously:
"Tell it to Eigenvalue."

But then settles into confidant mode anyway.  Perhaps picking up on
his "father-confessor" as bypassing any appeal to "Rachel as woman",
she offers advice rather than sympathy. (which, we're told, is more of
a male thing to do?)

"I think she's been slipping around, Rachel."
"So.  Find out and divorce her."


I'm disinclined to push any idea of "hey it's Sunday, they're not in
church, more decky-dance, they are playing out amateurishly what
priests could do better" type of thing.

There's that verse, "wherever two or more are gathered in my name",
and I think that in general I see Pynchon as not strictly doctrinaire
but willing to superimpose religious notions on secular actions among
his other points of view...

although, young Victoria Wren in her idiosyncratic version of
Christianity certainly does go beyond the pale.  That is, I'm not,
strictly speaking, with her when she considers her career as courtesan
as a form of monasticism.  Should I be?

Discussion topic: is there any juicy relationship between Roony's
"confession" to Rachel, and Mondaugen pere's "confession" to V.?