V-2 - Chapter 9 - More voluptuous than fat

[Robin Landseadel]

On Oct 15, 2010, at 12:29 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> "Voluptuous" is a stand-in for homosexual or maybe pansexual,

Pansexual, and very, very Weimar Republic:

http://tinyurl.com/2ahh8lu

> but I don't think Pynchon's point is to tell us that Mondaugen's gay  
> [in fact, he seems to be hetero, what with trying to get a glimpse  
> of Vera's bod through her negligee and his various encounters with  
> Hedwig (before any Angry Inch associations with that name)].

Of course, all of Kurt's liaisons in Chapter 9 were a tad perverse, in  
their own ways.

> Mondaugen's voluptuous.  Evan Godolphin's "such a fat boy." Benny  
> Profane's : "a great amoebalike boy, soft and fat."  Slothrop?   
> Damn! I can't find the page reference, but I'm positive he's  
> described as being on the chunky side (the first person to find the  
> reference wins a Disgusting English Candy!).  At any rate, he spends  
> a lot of time in a pig suit.

TRP does love to play with pigs, doesn't he?

> I have no fucking idea if Pynchon read much Russian literature

I'd lay odds . . .

> , but here's Oblomov: [can't vouch for the public domain, on-line  
> translation]
> "In general, to judge from the extreme whiteness of his bare neck,  
> his small, puffy hands, and his soft shoulders, one would conclude  
> that he possessed an effeminate body."
>
> In Oblomov's case, and, I'm guessing the same for Kurt, Evan, Benny  
> and Ty, the effeminate, piggy softness is a sign of sloth; a  
> depressed passivity towards life and the complexities of the world.   
> Mondaugen shuts himself up in his turret (Like Oedipa?), trying to  
> make sense of the ghosts of the past, but not wanting to engage with  
> them.  He's a colonialist by birth, rather than mentality.  Of  
> course, once he breaks free of his turret, he enters full force into  
> the world domination V-2 thing - look out Belgium and England.   
> Evan, Benny and Tyrone are conflicted: can you be in the game  
> without being co-opted?  Tyrone gets out.  Oblomov, in the end,  
> jumps in.
>
> Laura

Sounds about right, the alienation eventually leads to disengagement  
and withdrawal