V-2nd - 7: Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen
kelber at mindspring.com
kelber at mindspring.com
Thu Sep 16 17:22:00 CDT 2010
In her incarnation as Wren's naive daughter, she seems to have more in common with Alice, the remembered molestee of the child molester in Chapter 3, who, in turn, channels Alice in Wonderland. She doesn't bear much resemblance to Dally, who, at a young age is very worldly and self-sufficient.
Does Yashmeen resemble V. in any of her incarnations? Not yet, at any rate.
LK
-----Original Message-----
>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>Sent: Sep 16, 2010 6:10 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: V-2nd - 7: Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen
>
>My big question -- perhaps a fruitful direction of investigation in
>our re-reading of V. -- what mirror images of this/these woman/women
>can we find in Against the Day?
>
>On Sep 16, 2010, at 3:01 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>
>> OK, we meet Victoria Wren again, wiser after her affair with
>> Goodfellow. Here's something I hadn't noticed in Chapter 3 during
>> the first go-round:
>>
>> p. 63 (Harper Perennial): "The peer's [Alistair Wren's] wife -
>> Victoria - was meanwhile being blackmailed by Bongo-Shaftsbury, who
>> knew of her own secret anarchist sympathies."
>>
>> A few sentences later:
>>
>> "Bongo-Shaftsbury's avenue of approach would be through the
>> glamorous actress, Victoria, Wren's mistress, posing as his wife to
>> satisfy the English fetish of respectability."
>>
>> Later, we meet Wren's naive 18-year-old daughter Victoria, who has
>> the fling with Goodfellow and resurfaces in Chapter 7.
>>
>> Are these three different women? Two? One? What's Pynchon doing
>> here? Suggesting that these Victoria's aren't human, but some sort
>> of robot that can be issued as needed? Or one very devious spy
>> playing wife, glamorous actress/mistress/, and naive daughter?
>>
>> Thoughts, anyone?
>>
>> Laura
>
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