The V in the middle of the M in M&D

[Joseph Tracy]

CH 7- p 38,39
The corporate logo of the Dutch East India Company is a large V with smaller c and o on either side,( Whoda thunk the first corporation had a logo) which lines up elegantly with Pynchon's interest in the letter V as a sinister center of malign power.(And almost renews the original inquiry in V.) 

For a moment here and there throughout the capetown adventure P. holds it in the endearing light of its physical beauty. But always it is even more " ...this haunted other half of everything known". 
Capetown is ruled by  Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie   Voc  or The Dutch East India Company  The first Corporate enterprise with shareholders. The decisions though are made by the Herren 17- But  Capetown is also under the direct regional asian oversight of the Governer General  I suspect he is who Pynchon describes thus 
"..and ruled by the 18th Lord whose existence must never be acknowledg'd in any way."
Wikipedia provides the following Voc Governer Generals of the time in question
1750–1761   Jacob Mossel,	1761–1775: Petrus Albertus van der Parra
Calvinism is a powerful force here.    Other ideas on the 18th lord?


 M&D Housed with Zeeman but dining with Vroom odd funny and weirdly credible name. Possible implications?
V-room -  Voc room, Virgin/Vagina room , vavoom-sexual allure, 
Cornelius Vroom is a  friend of the Botha Brothers reference( P.W.  Botha) hates and fears non-whites, their food, sexuality, music; he also celebrates his manly adventures subduing the regional tribes. They eat a lot of un spiced Mutton which M&D find first dismal, then revolting.

At their arrival M&D are met by  Voc functionary Bonk, who bonks them with the rules for their stay and means to keep an eye on them.
  Capetown will be a world of rules which are systematically broken by the powerful and bent by everyone else. Back home in post-war Philadelphia our listener's may be thinking about the rule of law so central to the revolutionary propaganda and wondering if it is all it is cracked up to be.

Bonk, seeing that Mason does not know well how to bow and scrape, writes him down as a person of Interest. 

Coming up next: the sexy Vroom girls and their various relations to the blonde tresses that are their genetic heritage.









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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l