Talk:Chapter 1

Some guidelines to improve pages

This page and subsequent ones could be improved in a couple of ways:

  • More exhaustive sources: for instance, in the first entry, the sentence "Also, bene [Latin] = "well-intentioned", observes Molly Hite." Who's Molly White? Where did she observed it?

Molly Hite was an associate professor at Cornell. She wrote a critical analysis of Pynchon's first three books titled Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon, copyright 1983. The full quote where this exists is "The structural metaphor for the 'present' seems to be Profane's habit of yo-yoing, and the well-intentioned (bene) Benny himself, the presiding deity of the profane world, travels in a circumscribed orbit that is finally a parody of the linear plot, going from Norfolk to New York to Valletta without learning anything." Here is the Chicago style Citation:

“Duplicity and Duplication in ‘V.’” Essay. In Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon, 59. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1983. Jkvannort (talk) 15:59, 6 March 2024 (PST) Jkvannort (talk) 14:15, 26 March 2024 (PDT)

I added the definition of schlemiel/schlemihl, which alludes to a 19th century novel called Peter Schlemihl, who sells his shadow to the Devil. Jkvannort (talk) 07:55, 18 March 2024 (PDT)

I would also add that while the use of capitalization in V is derived from Germanic grammar, in Mason & Dixon, it follows the typical capitalization stylings of the 18th century Enlightenment, which probably does go back to German roots. However, when compared with novels like Pamela or Tom Jones, the language of M&D is imitating those. Jkvannort (talk) 18:52, 18 March 2024 (PDT)

  • Update of dead links and cross-referencing of information: for instance, second entry, "Pynchon worked on aspects of NORAD [later acronym] when he was at Boeing." without source.
  • Readibility: style uniformity when quoting texts, single words and links, for instance.

Mojomoyo (talk) 12:44, 8 November 2019 (PST)

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