V-2nd - 7: Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen
Mark Kohut
markekohut at yahoo.com
Sat Sep 18 21:14:03 CDT 2010
I could not associate Yashmeen with V. at all as I read Against the Day. Sorta
different thematic orders of being, if that makes
any sense.
V. is some kind of slippery personage metaphor from the beginning. We know that,
although we can be confused from first to last reading
about her, about her as metaphor.
Yashmeen is real enough to be a complex person invoking ["moral"] responses from
others in the book and from us.
She might be emblematic as a character, as Joan of Arc is in Henry 6, but she is
not grounded in symbolism as, say,
the Invisible Man is or the Dr. Eickelberg's eye glasses sign is in The Great
Gatsby.
She has desirous lovers as V. does. Some bits of Venus, in declination in our
time, in both?
By the way, I am reminded in a footnote in Shax that Venus had Mars, god
of war, of course as her lover.
----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Thu, September 16, 2010 6:22:00 PM
Subject: Re: V-2nd - 7: Victoria Wren, late of Lardwick-in-the-Fen
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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