Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Questions from Reading Group Guides

1. To what extent can V. be read as "an analysis" of the decadence of the 1950s and, by extension, of the decadence of all of twentieth-century western culture?

2. In what ways is Benny Profane a "schlemihl" and a passive victim of circumstances? What are the causes and consequences of his repeated, frequently self-professed victimization? As a "human yo-yo," how is he the plaything of his culture and of history?

3. What are the nature and purpose of Herbert Stencil's quest? What does Pynchon mean when he writes that "Stencil was in time to be the century's child"? How does Stencil's search for V. reveal the decadence of European colonialism and of twentieth-century western culture?

4. Who are the various women who bear the initial "V"? What do these women represent? In addition to these women, what other persons, objects, places, and concepts are associated with the letter? How does the letter "V," as the novel's title and central symbol, effectively focus all of the primary motifs in the novel?

5. How does Pynchon illustrate the concept of entropy--the deterioration of all systems to a state of absolute inertness in which all creative energies have been dispersed? What characters and situations are most pointedlyassociated with entropy? What "rescues" from decay and deterioration dovarious characters put forward, and with what results?

6. What are the layouts and goals of the novel's various labyrinths ormazes, of either space or time? What do Profane, Stencil, and othercharacters discover about themselves and about history as they navigatetheir labyrinths?

7. What do Chiclitz, Schoenmaker, Winsome, and Eigenvalue represent?How are they related to the British Foreign Office men, Nazi officers, andother professionals who figure in Stencil's quest?

8. In what ways--and to what degree--do Profane, Stencil, and others attempt to create order out of disorder? Is any one character's approach in this regard more successful than those of the others?

9. Herbert Stencil's father says, "Suppose, sometime between 1859 and 1919, the world contracted a disease which no one ever took the trouble to diagnose because the symptoms were too subtle--blending in with the events of history, no different one by one but altogether--fatal." How would you describe that disease? How may V. be read as Pynchon's diagnosis of it?

10. Rachel thinks of the people in Dr. Schoenmaker's waiting room as only one group of "a transient population of the imperfect, the dissatisfied." In what ways do you think Rachel's perception describes all the characters in the novel?

I'm excited to start this later this month: This will be my last Quarterly! If I'm up to it next year I may stick around to host one though :)

For anyone looking to source this one for free, the audiobook has been uploaded to youtube in a couple parts.

Maybe I'm overly influenced by the world of conspiracy theory that we currently live in, but I saw everyone as working very hard to find narrative (3, 8) - the purpose of the quest) in the events that were past or current. All that is EXCEPT Profane, who has absolutely NO attachments by the end - and he works very hard to shed them - to work, to women. That makes Profane (no religion, base) and Stencil (tracing, a cutout) the foil and counterfoil but neither is really hero or anti hero given how terribly everyone behaves. I don't think Benny is a victim (2) - he is actively resisting the narrative formation that is so intrinsic to human nature.

4 - V shows how random are the things we shove together to make a whole, to tell a story. The initial is everywhere over the landscape and women's names and it means nothing except to the obsessional mind. This is maybe the disease (9) that has infected everyone, seeing shadows - turning florence and south africa and the world into riots or worse war zones because of people's ideas of each other based on shadows and an attempt to create narrative.

1. To what extent can V. be read as "an analysis" of the decadence of the 1950s and, by extension, of the decadence of all of twentieth-century western culture?


I think "analysis" is the wrong word, but it isn't as if I could come up with the right one. Pynchon built in this meandering maze of a book a map, so to speak of how a society breaks down. Stencil's obsessions reflect the 1950's but constructs his stories from a much wider swath of history. Ben Profane exists and his existence reflects the time that he lives in.

2. In what ways is Benny Profane a "schlemihl" and a passive victim of circumstances? What are the causes and consequences of his repeated, frequently self-professed victimization? As a "human yo-yo," how is he the plaything of his culture and of history?

Again, the tilt of the question seems wrong. Benny is a self proclaimed "schlemihl" and he seems to know exactly what that means. However, he is an "active" not passive yo-yo....they even use yo-yo as a verb, and he very actively works to not have any connections, obligations, plans. He is a patternless person who ultimately comes to have the pattern of a patternless person.


3. What are the nature and purpose of Herbert Stencil's quest? What does Pynchon mean when he writes that "Stencil was in time to be the century's child"? How does Stencil's search for V. reveal the decadence of European colonialism and of twentieth-century western culture?

Herbert's quest arises from the writings, notes, and other left overs pieces from his father. He turns these into an obsession whereby he constructs whole stories that tell of the nature and break down of colonialism, imperialism, and america's version of the same, under the heading of exploitive capitalism (although this aspect is shown better on the Profane side of the book). V is most often a women who moves throughout Stencil's search maturing from a young optimistic flirtatious woman, all the way through a semi robotic automaton who is moving further away from any human aspect of civilization.

4. Who are the various women who bear the initial "V"? What do these women represent? In addition to these women, what other persons, objects, places, and concepts are associated with the letter? How does the letter "V," as the novel's title and central symbol, effectively focus all of the primary motifs in the novel?

V stands for the breakdown of society from community to mass destruction through colonialism, science, the predictable, all that can be manipulated into a stale beaten future of people without free will or agency.
The various V's show this breakdown although not in chronological order. There are also place names with the letter V that contain notions about conspiracy (Valette and Vheissu).


5. How does Pynchon illustrate the concept of entropy--the deterioration of all systems to a state of absolute inertness in which all creative energies have been dispersed? What characters and situations are most pointedlyassociated with entropy? What "rescues" from decay and deterioration dovarious characters put forward, and with what results?

I guess one could say that entropy was the condition of this novel. It fractures, breakdowns, doubles back on itself and ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Stencil does not find V. although he does discover that the process is more important to himself than the product. Profane does not connect but he does manage to maintain some human aspect given the entropy of his condition; endless parties, sex, violence, no lasting partnerships.

7. What do Chiclitz, Schoenmaker, Winsome, and Eigenvalue represent?How are they related to the British Foreign Office men, Nazi officers, andother professionals who figure in Stencil's quest?

They are america's managerial/technical class that work to keep systems running, to produce at least some kind of result (noses/teeth/music) and to attempt to add order to things. Winsome does not accomplish this.
Schoenmaker and Eignevalue have a place as they represent change that is not really beneficial change.
The Foreign Office men are working to keep the Empire in some slight form of control instead of veering off into a total breakdown.

9. Herbert Stencil's father says, "Suppose, sometime between 1859 and 1919, the world contracted a disease which no one ever took the trouble to diagnose because the symptoms were too subtle--blending in with the events of history, no different one by one but altogether--fatal." How would you describe that disease? How may V. be read as Pynchon's diagnosis of it?
It is a good quote and helpful in the reading of this book. The novel is both a representation and a realization of this disease.

1. To what extent can V. be read as "an analysis" of the decadence of the 1950s and, by extension, of the decadence of all of twentieth-century western culture?
I’ve never thought of the 1950s as a particularly “decadent” era – a prosperous one, yes, and a conformist one, certainly. But if we’re going by the definition of decadent as a period of moral and cultural decline, then maybe it’s about the impact of television, suburbanization, mass production…? The man in the grey flannel suit. Depersonalization, one historian called it. Everyone becomes a cog in the capitalist machinery, and everyone is encouraged to conform. Because we happened to be reading Herzog as a book of the month (published around the same time as V some similarities occurred to me. Also I just noticed that they share a page Boxall! In Herzog, Bellow writes: “well, for instance, what it means to be a man. In a city. In a century. In transition. In a mass. Transformed by science. Under organized power. Subject to tremendous controls. In a condition caused by mechanization. After the late failure of radical hopes. In a society that was community and devalued the person owing to the multiplied power of numbers which made the self negligible. Which spent military billions against foreign enemies but would not pay for order at home. Which permitted savagery and barbarism in its own great cities.”

This is close to Pynchon’s definition of decadence, which is articulated on p. 450, chapter 14: “A decadence… is a falling-away from what is human, and the further we fall the less human we become. Because we are less human, we foist off the humanity we had on inanimate objects and abstract theories.” Pynchon thinks this shift has been happening for decades. See for example, the 1922 siege at Foppl’s in South Africa which lasts 2 ½ months; this is a clear example of moral and cultural decline, as are the memories of the 1904 siege, in which Europeans killed thousands of native South Africans. For more on this see question #9.

2. In what ways is Benny Profane a "schlemihl" and a passive victim of circumstances? What are the causes and consequences of his repeated, frequently self-professed victimization? As a "human yo-yo," how is he the plaything of his culture and of history?
He does whatever anybody wants him to do. He goes with Fina and her family and starts shooting alligators in the sewers because they tell him he should. He lets his fading erection point him to the employment agency where he meets Rachel, and he goes with her because she tells him to. He goes to Malta because Stencil and Paolo want him to and, when Stencil is done with him, he is abandoned. I think this question kind of answers itself; he is an “everyman” bounced around by other people’s desires and by larger political/social/cultural forces. He does not act and barely reacts. As such he is a contrast with Stencil, who tries to understand these forces (see below).

3. What are the nature and purpose of Herbert Stencil's quest? What does Pynchon mean when he writes that "Stencil was in time to be the century's child"? How does Stencil's search for V. reveal the decadence of European colonialism and of twentieth-century western culture?
Stencil’s father Sydney is part of a group of European diplomats and spies active at the turn of the century and at least through WWI. Perhaps this is why he is the child of the century? Herbert is searching for V., ostensibly a woman mentioned in his father’s diary: “There is more behind and inside V. than any of us had suspected. Not who, but what: what is she.” As this suggests, V. the woman stands in for something larger. In chapter 14, a character suggests that “history” is a woman and women are mysteries (Kholsky: everything happens according to the basic rhythms of History. “Perhaps she is a woman; women are a mystery to me.”). So really what Stencil is trying to understand are the historical forces that have shaped the world he lives in. Unlike Benny, he is an active, searching character. However, I don’t think he truly understands what he is looking for and Pynchon suggests he will never be able to understand. V. is the personification of the shift away from humanity, discarding and/or deliberately replacing parts of her body with inanimate objects.

4. Who are the various women who bear the initial "V"? What do these women represent? In addition to these women, what other persons, objects, places, and concepts are associated with the letter? How does the letter "V," as the novel's title and central symbol, effectively focus all of the primary motifs in the novel?
My answers above and below address the second half of this. Here is a partial list of “Vs”:
• Victoria Wren= an English girl in Egypt in 1898 and later appears in Italy in 1899, in South Africa in the 1920s, in Malta disguised as a priest in the 1940s. She will take other "V" names through the course of the book.
• V-Note: a bar mentioned on p. 55
• Veronica = a rat who became the lover of a priest trying to convert rats to Catholicism?!?
• Vheissu = a mythical or maybe a real place; a country meant to stand in for others that are colonized? In ch. 9, Old Goldophin says that WWI destroyed a kind of privacy, that “our Vheissus are no longer our own, or even confined to a circle of friends; they’re public property.”
• Venus de milo: the painting Signor Mantissa and The Gaucho plan to steal
• Venezuela: some think Vheissu is a code name for this, but it really stands for…
• Vesuvius
• Vergeltungswaffe, eins and zwei: Vengeance weapon, v1 and v2, designed by Germans during WWII
• Hedwig Vogelsang: a young woman in South Africa whose purpose is to tantalize and send raving the race of man.
• Valletta: a city on the island of Malta.
• Violet: P. 427: “Someday, please God, there would be an electronic woman. Maybe her name would be Violet. Any problems with her, you could look it up in the maintenance manual… Remove and replace, was all.” Just one of the many sexist statements made by Pynchon.

5. How does Pynchon illustrate the concept of entropy--the deterioration of all systems to a state of absolute inertness in which all creative energies have been dispersed? What characters and situations are most pointedly associated with entropy? What "rescues" from decay and deterioration do various characters put forward, and with what results?
My other answers address this, at least in part. Early on (chapter 4), Pynchon states, if Alignment with the inanimate is the mark of a bad guy…” Hence, actions or people associated with the inanimate is bad or questionable. By chapter 10, the word “inanimate” is used almost every other page. For example, when Evan Godolphin is injured in WWI, his facial components are replaced with inanimate objects – e.g. ivory nose, silver cheekbone. This solution is temporary, as the human body rejects foreign objects. Foppl is also a good example of someone who has lost their humanity, albeit in a different way. In chapter 9, he tells Mondaugen how he loved General von Trotha, the man that taught him not to fear violence against fellow humans: “It is impossible to describe the sudden release; the comfort, the luxury; when you could safely forget all the rote-lessons you’d had to learn about the value and dignity of human life.” Profane eventually works with SHROUD & SHOCK, “inanimate schlemihls,” synthetic humans invented to study the effects of radiation and crashes. One of these tells Profane “[we] are what you and everybody will be someday.” By chapter 10, the word “inanimate” is used almost every other page.

I am not sure that anyone successfully resists decay and deterioration. Mondaugen simply runs away from Foppl’s villa. For all his flaws, Profane instinctively recognizes the dangers and hopelessness of this slide away from humanity: “All around him were people in new suits, millions of inanimate objects being produced brand-new every week, new cars in the streets, houses going up by the thousands all over the suburbs…” He also describes the commuters in the subway: Vertical corpses, eyes with no life, crowded loins, buttocks and hip-points together.”

6. What are the layouts and goals of the novel's various labyrinths or mazes, of either space or time? What do Profane, Stencil, and other characters discover about themselves and about history as they navigate their labyrinths?
Here is a partial list of labyrinths or mazes. As for what Profane and Stencil discover about themselves and history, I believe my other answers address this:
• The sewers underneath New York City
• The subways themselves
• The network of natural tunnels under the earth discovered by the Vheissu
• Malta during WWII: the population hides under the street during bombing raid (p.359: “but in dream there are two worlds: the street and under the street. One is the kingdom of death and one of life.”). This is where V dies.

7. What do Chiclitz, Schoenmaker, Winsome, and Eigenvalue represent? How are they related to the British Foreign Office men, Nazi officers, and other professionals who figure in Stencil's quest?
I believe they all represent the deterioration of humanity in the 20th century. Chiclitz is a defense contractor working for Yoyodyne. He initially made yoyos (gyroscopes) as toys and then started manufacturing technology for the government. Hence, a man who produced harmless toys is now helping to mass produce (I would assume) weapons of mass destruction. Schoenmaker is a plastic surgeon, someone who is literally changing the natural appearance of humans. Winsome is a record producer associated with the Whole Sick Crew and perhaps represents the commodification of art.

8. In what ways--and to what degree--do Profane, Stencil, and others attempt to create order out of disorder? Is any one character's approach in this regard more successful than those of the others?
Profane is not even trying to create order out of disorder. He tries to avoid certain situations, like living in the suburbs, but he mainly just goes along with the flow. Stencil seems to think that by tracking down V he will be able to understand something about history (as discussed above).

9. Herbert Stencil's father says, "Suppose, sometime between 1859 and 1919, the world contracted a disease which no one ever took the trouble to diagnose because the symptoms were too subtle--blending in with the events of history, no different one by one but altogether--fatal." How would you describe that disease? How may V. be read as Pynchon's diagnosis of it?
This refers to the theme discussed above: the shift away from humanity toward increasing industrialization, colonization, and competition for territories and their resources which culminated in WWI but did not end with it. the public believed WWI was a new and rare disease that was “cured” with the end of the war. However, Stencil Sr. notes that WWI was terrible but fundamentally no different from wars and conflicts that had come before and will no doubt come after. he believes that the United Nations and the hope for universal disarmament are a “loathsome weakness of retreat into dreams.” His comrade Mehemet compares the political machinations to an insane sailor he once saw painting a sinking ship, which I think is the perfect image for this book.

To what extent can V. be read as "an analysis" of the decadence of the 1950s and, by extension, of the decadence of all of twentieth-century western culture? The 50s, the post year wars gave birth to women’s lib with the emergence of birth control. It also was the years of the beatnik generation and being On the Road or yo yoing. Technology rapidly grew with television, telephones, kitchen appliances, computers, etc.

2. In what ways is Benny Profane a "schlemihl" and a passive victim of circumstances? What are the causes and consequences of his repeated, frequently self-professed victimization?

As a "human yo-yo," how is he the plaything of his culture and of history? Profane represents the post war person. Discharged from service, alienated, with no goals or aims. He also is hedonistic, seeking pleasure where ever he can find it. Profane is the typical Pynchon character at odds with the world. I think the causes are his own choices as well as the consequences are the results of choices. Some may blame society. I do not. He makes himself the victim.


3. What are the nature and purpose of Herbert Stencil's quest? What does Pynchon mean when he writes that "Stencil was in time to be the century's child"? How does Stencil's search for V. reveal the decadence of European colonialism and of twentieth-century western culture? Stencil is searching for V. A mysterious women that represents "history, memory, and elusive truth". And isn't truth something that got lost in the 50s. Also he is rather obsessive and paranoid.

4. Who are the various women who bear the initial "V"? What do these women represent? In addition to these women, what other persons, objects, places, and concepts are associated with the letter? How does the letter "V," as the novel's title and central symbol, effectively focus all of the primary motifs in the novel?

Victoria Wren: 18 y/o, in 19th-century Egypt, during the Fashoda Crisis. She represents an initial state of innocence and is the most human and "animate" version of the character. She is a passive observer of political intrigue and a potential "lost promise".
Vera Meroving: German South-West Africa during the Herero uprising (1904-1907) and later in the 1920s. By this point, she has acquired a glass eye with a tiny clock mechanism inside, symbolizing the beginning of her mechanization.
Veronica Manganese: A wealthy, revolutionary troublemaker associated with Italian anarchists in Malta in 1919. Also a sewer rat. Debasement of V.
The Bad Priest: The final, almost entirely inanimate manifestation of V., found in Valletta, Malta, during a WWII bombing raid in 1942. Children dismantle her body after her death, removing artificial parts including a wig, false teeth, a glass eye, and artificial feet, demonstrating her ultimate transformation into an object.
Others: Veronica the sewer rat; Valerie, a woman whose letter is found; Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Objects: V1 rocket
Places: Vheissu, a mythical, "lost geographical Eden" in the polar underworld sought by explorer Hugh Godolphin, which mocks attempts at meaning; Valletta, the capital of Malta, a besieged city where V. dies; Venezuela

Concepts: The Void; the number five (as a Roman numeral); vengeance; the Virgin (contrasted with the dynamo/mechanized V.); and the overall process of inanimateness or decay, which the novel explores.

Central symbol: the progression from human to mechanical. Entropy and inanimateness.
Futility of the Quest: books are often about Quests, Stencil is our quester. his Quest is futile. He never finds his answers. Truth is futile and unobtainable.

Connected verses disconnected: This is where Profane and Stencil meet. The lack of truth and connection.

5. How does Pynchon illustrate the concept of entropy--the deterioration of all systems to a state of absolute inertness in which all creative energies have been dispersed? What characters and situations are most pointedly associated with entropy? What "rescues" from decay and deterioration do various characters put forward, and with what results?

Decay and disorder. All is heading toward disorder.

6. What are the layouts and goals of the novel's various labyrinths or mazes, of either space or time? What do Profane, Stencil, and other characters discover about themselves and about history as they navigate their labyrinths? The sewer system. Subways, tunnels, above and below the streets.

7. What do Chiclitz, Schoenmaker, Winsome, and Eigenvalue represent? How are they related to the British Foreign Office men, Nazi officers, and other professionals who figure in Stencil's quest?


8. In what ways--and to what degree--do Profane, Stencil, and others attempt to create order out of disorder? Is any one character's approach in this regard more successful than those of the others?

Profane avoids, Stencil seeks. Neither finds any solutions

9. Herbert Stencil's father says, "Suppose, sometime between 1859 and 1919, the world contracted a disease which no one ever took the trouble to diagnose because the symptoms were too subtle--blending in with the events of history, no different one by one but altogether--fatal." How would you describe that disease? How may V. be read as Pynchon's diagnosis of it?

It is the birth of the world view and humanism, evolution etc that is part of the after war years. I don't see that anything has changed from Pynchon's view of the 20th century to the now 21st century.