V-2nd - 7: Fathers and Sons

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Well put.  It surprises me how much this chapter seems closer to ATD than to GR.  There's something sepia-toned about P's portrayal of colonialism in this chapter, as if it's filtered through genre-fiction, as in ATD.  Colonialism is a horror for the colonialist (the horror!)as well as for the colonized.  Similar to the scenes of the Vibe son who's a colonialist - forget his name. The critique of colonialism in GR, say, in the Turkic alphabet sequence, is much more pointed and sarcastic, less mystical and wistful in tone.  Tchitcherin may seek solace from drugs, but he doesn't seem to suffer from this pensive brand of colonialist angst.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>
>I think Vheissu is in essence the karmic balance of colonialism, and a
>sort of mirror to the soul of the Adventurer/Colonist: a terrifying
>void where there is no such thing as morality, and a place with no
>boundaries that can find you wherever you go.
>
>I also think that Stencil's father is the one who unknowingly sets the
>transformation of V going, inspiring Victoria Wren to pursue her own
>Vheissu by telling her the story of his having arrived there. That
>goal the takes her through her numerous transformations to,
>ultimately, her demise as the Bad Priest.
>
>On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 3:06 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>> Godolphin the Elder's legacy to Young Godolphin:  Vheissu (where or what is it?), a place of shifting shapes and colors, like living in a "madman's kaleidoscope."  Acid trip? Or a literary foray into magical realism?  Vheissu's no paradise - the name evokes fear, more than fantasy, and it's tied in with some sort of brewing apocalypse.
>>
>> This closely parallels Stencil the Elder's legacy to Young Stencil: V., a woman of shifting shapes and identities, who may or may not be entirely human.  Stencil explores the idea that Vheissu (and, by extension, V.) may have been a fictional construct created as a metaphor for something far more sinister.