V-2nd - 7: Fathers and Sons

[Mark Kohut]

David Morris articulates well:
"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."

is one gloss, perhaps, that that mirror the Adventurer/Colonist sees himself
in; is that 'moral void' a kind of anarchic--in P's sense--void where there is 
also
lotsa color, in one line on 170 or 171, where even the lowlands(!) have it, 
where 

there are even dreams dreamed in color?.......
That is, might Pynchon be suggesting "the void" is full of feuding and bad shit
but also ...some other stuff? That the Adventurer sees not Just a Heart of 
Darkness?
There are later uses of Vheissu where 'no going back' is what the Colonizer 
acknowledges
and more

I too, like Laura, am more reminded of Against The Day than 
another.......specifically,
one thing: that section late in the old Eastern European village where 
almost-eternal feuding, 

revenge, hostilities in the village are written of....and the village is full of 
animate life also......



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.