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

[Mark Kohut]

Just a little emblematic metaphor that seemed relevant while I think about this:
Bowerbirds trick mates with optical 
illusionshttp://www.nature.com/news/2010/100909/full/news.2010.458.html



----- Original Message ----
From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Thu, September 16, 2010 6:10:50 PM
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