V-2 - Chapter 9 - Natural Concentration Camps

[Michael Bailey]

Robin Landseadel wrote:

> Note the echo of "Clouds moved across those eyes; whether reflected or
> transmitted he'd never know" in "He came home to find her drooling, her eyes
> drained for good of all weather."
>

hadn't noticed that

>
>> exists in any potential verbal
>> encounter to draw them away from their endeavor - and yet, what
>> they've been building makes following that prompting a major hazard, a
>> turning away like Roger and Jessica's from the harsh War-mother
>> symbolized in V. by the various incarnations of V.?
>
> I guess you'll have to expand on those thoughts before I'll comprehend them.
> I do see a lot of the ideas in chapter 9 expand in Gravity's Rainbow, no
> question of that, particularly as regards sick, anti-human sex.
>

just riffing on the text, really:
that "operational sympathy" - so different from real human sympathy,
which is precluded by the operation they are engaged in, the headspace
they share - as if they are actually building something of more value

and any truly sympathetic communication between them, it's like even
one kindly word will lead them to think there's another way - but the
very ground beneath their feet is built in service of the horrible
system they are laboring under, and to deviate would put them in deep
water

Maybe the invocation of "our Redeemer" isn't only a sarcastic toss-off
simply pointing to the hypocrisy of Foppl's viewpoint (although it
certainly does function that way) - it's an admission that even on
this horrible breakwater, it's easy enough to conceive of a kinder,
gentler way of doing things - in fact, it's actually difficult not
to...

I often find things in Pynchon's books that I've noticed and found
worth a chuckle, and see that he's thought them through and used them
a lot more purposefully.

Here, it's the "Redeemer" idea.
I remember a little inward smile when I first learned about
"Irredentists" (a term that comes up in AtD) -
It's possible that the "dentist as confessor" plays on that:
- Irredentists, un-redeemed
re-deeming (deeming differently, renaming)

so a "dentist" is, in a non-standard sense, someone who deems
and that's why Stencil and the WSC utilize his services that way

The Re-deemer, also appearing in GR (just for a minute, you are not
who the Caesars say you are)