V-2nd - 7: Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen

[Mark Kohut]

I hope that Zen line, First thought, Best thought is true for me here.

two women. 


----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Thu, September 16, 2010 6:01:03 PM
Subject: V-2nd - 7:  Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen

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