Gold, Man, Sax and Violins CH 6 V-2

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 9, 2010, at 11:12 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> I agree that there are dual narrators (expressing different  
> attitudes) in V., giving the book a schizoid feel. Not sure if every  
> chapter can be neatly tossed into the Benny or Stencil pile.  But  
> maybe?

While Mondaugen's Story obviously belongs in the "Stencil" pile, the  
narrator seems different than other voices in "V." that come from what  
is supposed to be Stencil's perspective. At the same time, Benny's  
projection into his West Side Sewer Story is plenty unreliable, as I  
pointed out before.

Whoever/Whatever the narrator is who lays out the meething between  
Stencil & Mondaugen may be, that narrator is pointing out that Stencil  
has greatly embellished his interview:

	Stencil listened attentively. The tale proper and the questioning
	after took no more than thirty minutes. Yet the next Wednesday
	afternoon at Eigenvalue's office, when Stencil retold it, the yarn
	had undergone considerable change: had become, as
	Eigenvalue put it, Stencilized.

While the chapter 9 is "Stencilized" it seems to be a different voice  
than any other in the book, make of that what you will. Against the  
Day is much more explicit concerning the multiplicity of narratorial  
voices. As I have mentioned many times before, AtD appears to be an  
expansion of material in "V." and to this reader, the material is used  
to much better effect.

>  The unflattering view of Rachel Owlglass we get in Chapter 1  
> (Benny) is countered in Chapter 2 (Stencil).  Chapter 3 is  
> Stencil's; 4, by its grotesque nature goes to Stencil.  5 and 6 are  
> Benny's but we'll be hanging on the western wall with Stencil in 7.

Who by that time had the most gawdawful ear for the Italian dialect.

> But dual narrators aren't the same as unreliable narrators.

No, but it's clear that these two are.

> Are the Benny chapters fantasy?  Joseph brought up an interesting  
> point about Benny's alligator comment.  Was the alligator hunting  
> job a fantasy of the unemployed drifter?  I'm honestly not sure.

Me neither. Whatever the story is, it clearly is a comment on "West  
Side Story". "West Side Story" premiered on Broadway in 1957, the  
sewer scenes appear to be around 1956, by 1961 it was a great big deal  
of a movie.

> WHat about the opening scenes of carousing sailors?  Fantasy?  Is  
> Pig Bodine a fantasy friend concocted by a lonely schlemiel? Once  
> you go down the path of Benny-the-unreliable-narrator, where do you  
> draw the line?

"Shall I project a world?"

Of course, in a Satire, the point often is to go over the line.

> Does Benny really bare no relation to the psyche of the Young  
> Pynchon?  Who or what is he, if not Pynchon's somewhat self- 
> loathing, certainly self-deprecating view of himself.  We know the  
> NYC sewers aren't infested with alligators.  But we suspend  
> disbelief for the sake of, not just a good story, but one that's  
> become iconic, and possibly Pynchon's best-known shtick.

The notion of battling giant lizards beneath N.Y. streets is absurd  
enough to qualify as satire. Outsized and outlandish is what
Rabelais, Swift and Cervantes are all about.

> But if Profane's thought and subsequent comment to Lucille are meant  
> as a wink at us - well, why?  You mean there really aren't  
> alligators?  No shit!  Or maybe Young Pynchon just wants to play it  
> both ways: not a master literary plan, but an undeveloped choice.

Or maybe it's confusing because it really isn't all that well  
developed. After all, this is the author's first attempt at a novel.  
Taking the author's word as I often do, [I.E., CoL49 was a "short  
story with gland trouble"], the next Novel the author got published  
knocked it out of the park.

> Sifting through, then, maybe what I'm arriving at is that Benny and  
> Stencil aren't dual halves of Pynchon's psyche.  Benny's the  
> grounded, reality-based recent young grad side of P, while Stencil's  
> the voice of P the emerging author.  Past becoming future.

I'm sorry, but I am genuinely confused here. Do you really mean:

	"Sifting through, then, maybe what I'm arriving at is that Benny
	and Stencil are dual halves of Pynchon's psyche"

Because what you say after that:

	"Benny's the grounded, reality-based recent young grad side of
	P, while Stencil's the voice of P the emerging author.  Past
	becoming future. Which is a theme in V.."

. . . sounds like what I mean when I say that this reminds me of  
Narcissus and Goldman and their dual and [relative to the storyline]  
unequal lines of development and time spent on their respective stories.

> Which is a theme in V.. [hate that double period!]  Which reminds me  
> of the section in Chap. 6, Part II when Benny's on his way to the  
> job interview.  He has nostalgia for the Depression - the era he was  
> born in, while walking amidst the affluence of the present day 50s.   
> From 30s (past) to 50s (future).  Where's WWII and the 40s?

Uh, the next Novel?

>  V's about that jump from colonialism to affluent post-war society,  
> from young P to P-the-author.
>
> Laura