Pynchon Wiki: V.

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Welcome to V. Wiki

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This is the Wiki for Thomas Pynchon's V.. Besides using the Alphabetical Index and the page-by-page annotation, you can also take a look at V. covers, read the reviews, or provide insights or observations.

1 How to Use this Wiki
2 Alphabetical Index
3 Page by Page Annotations
4 Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines
5 External Links
6 Featured Article
7 Image Gallery

How to Use this Wiki

Pagination: We are using the 492-page pagination of the original editions of V. and the 547-page later editions. There are other paginations out there (why do they do this???), but these are the two we've chosen. Page numbers referred to as xx/xx are indicating first the 492-page edition page number and, after the slash, the 547-page edition page number.

There are two major ways to use this wiki. The first is the V. Alphabetical Index, used to keep track of the myriad characters, real and imagined, as well as events, arcana, and lots of other stuff. The second is the Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page, which allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner. These two sections are so far almost entirely different, but we're working on integrating them.

Apart from those, it's up to you.

Alphabetical Index

Information on the characters, events, and everything else in V., organized alphabetically:

A·B·C·D·E·F·G·H·I·J·K·L·M·N·O·P·Q·R·S·T·U·V·W·XYZ TOP↑

Page by Page Annotations

An alternate form of commentary on the text. The guiding principle of these annotations is to remain spoiler-free, so that readers can follow along without the fear that later parts of the book will be revealed.

Chapter 1 In which Benny Profane, a schlemihl and human yo-yo, gets to an apocheir 9/1	Chapter 2 The Whole Sick Crew 44/39	Chapter 3 In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations 61/59	Chapter 4 In which Esther gets a nose job 95/97
Chapter 5 In which Stencil nearly goes West with an alligator 111/115	Chapter 6 In which Profane returns to street level 134/141	Chapter 7 She hangs on the western wall 152/161	Chapter 8 In which Rachel gets her yo-yo back, Roony sings a song, and Stencil calls on Bloody Chiclitz 213/229
Chapter 9 Mondaugen's story 229/247	Chapter 10 In which various sets of young people get together 280/305	Chapter 11 Confessions of Fausto Maijstral 304/333	Chapter 12 In which things are not so amusing 347/385
Chapter 13 In which the yo-yo string is revealed as a state of mind 367/407	Chapter 14 V. in love 393/437	Chapter 15 Sahha 415/461	Chapter 16 Valletta 424/471
Epilogue, 1919 456/507

Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines

Click here for help with editing and creating pages.

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

When creating a new page, first check to make sure a page/article about what you want to write about hasn't already been created, by checking the list of all Wiki pages on Pynchon Wiki. If a page already exists, please modify that one.

To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index or Page by Page Annotations, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg [[Discussion Subject|'''DISCUSSION''']]) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in bold and full caps, so it stands out a bit.

More help for this wiki available here.

External Links

The Modern Word: V.

The Fictional Woods - a Pynchon forum

Featured Article

This Malta Independent article, by Noel Grima, published on April 13, 2014, explores Pynchon's relationship with Malta, which began in the 1950s when, in the Navy, he was stationed there. It also talks about modern Malta.

Read the Malta Independent article...

This article from the June 25, 2008 New York Times Travel section has a video of Malta's history, photographs, and is a pretty good read (but check out the comments!):

Malta’s historical significance, however, outweighs its tiny weirdness. For 2,000 years, it was one of the most important strategic locations in the Mediterranean, a key to controlling naval traffic between the sea’s east and west. More recently, Malta has occupied a strategic spot in the American imagination, from The Maltese Falcon to Thomas Pynchon’s V. and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, both of which had significant scenes set here. And Hollywood has gotten into Malta, too: Troy, Gladiator and even Popeye were shot here.

Read the New York Times article...