V-2 - Chapter Nine - Fasching/False Time

[Mark Kohut]

Alice writes:

Maybe this is too obvious to mention, but the direct description of
Kurt is none too flattering. He is voluptuous.  Odd word for a man,
no? He seems a bit like that fat boy in Willy Wonker and the Chocolate
Factory. He has, as do many characters in this novel, a problem with
the sun. The sun, it seems, is late. It's not exactly a train. And it
mocks him. The irony of his situation is acknowledged by Kurt, though
the narrator suggests that the situation may not be ironic. In other
words, there is nothing ironic in the situation that Kurt doesn't make
ironic. We are also told that he fancied a horrid perversity. He
fancied it. Was it real? Did he imagine it? Did he desire it? He
shares something (we are told this is a major trait) with Karl
Baedecker, a basic distrust of the South. He shares this trait with
Henry Adams too; he also shares Adams's itinerary.


Yes, voluptuous is an odd word....would Slothrop be described as 
more voluptuous that fat?..(he connects with lots of women, that Slothrop,
does he have a shy smile like Mondaugen?)

As a representative of empire in his white outpost, he wants the sun to
rise faster as he waits...it mocks him 'cause he can't control it as he wants,
as he can his subjects?