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

[Mark Kohut]

Laura sez:
    "Benny's the grounded, reality-based recent young grad side of
    P, while Stencil's the voice of P the emerging author.

Stencil is P discovering his historical vision?

Once again, I will argue, Robin & Dave W., the usual meaning of 'unreliable 
narrator" is not happening here.....as in The Good Soldier or Remains of the Day 
wherein we learn of TRUE FACTS that the narrators blind themselves 
to....................

Here in V., we have that effaced narrator persona merging with the voice of the 
various characters......

 


----- Original Message ----
From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Cc: kelber at mindspring.com
Sent: Thu, September 9, 2010 3:08:46 PM
Subject: Re: Gold, Man, Sax and Violins CH 6 V-2

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