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

[Joseph Tracy]

I was listening to Tom Waits' Alice today, which is an adult  
meditation on Lewis Carol AKA Chales Dodgson's infatuation with Alice  
Liddel and the  famous book which was originally given as a  
handwritten book to Alice L. titled Alice's adventures underground.

The original snark hunt took place in the NYC sewer system in 1956.  
OK I made that up. But hey, whooo are you ,and what are you doing  
down there?




On Sep 16, 2010, at 6:22 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> 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
>>