V'scape?A Deleuzean Reading of V.

the proto-V.-quester,
swallowed up by a sudden giant watersprout 41 out of the deep
sea within Mara’s domain on a cloudless day, a mystery kept from young Stencil’s
knowledge. It is believed to be Mara’s doing—having her revenge done with simple
but mysterious natural force. Thus, Mara, a Maltese, is the reification of Vheissu the
reification of V. 42
While Vheissu’s
existence remains a mystery, the history of Malta, on which
Mara lives, is a fact. One passage in V. describes Malta significantly as such:
Malta is a noun feminine and proper. Italians have indeed been attempting
her defloration since the 8 th of June. She lies on her back in the sea, sullen;
an immemorial woman. Spread to the explosive orgasms of Mussolini
bombs. But her soul hasn’t been touched; cannot be. Her soul is the
Maltese people, who wait—only wait—down in her clefts and catacombs
alive with a numb strength, filled with faith in God His Church. How can
her flesh matter? It is vulnerable, a victim. But as the Ark was to Noah so
is the inviolable womb of our Maltese rock to her children. Something
given us in return for being filial and constant, children also of God. (318)
An emblem of the female spirit, Mara embodies this soul of the Maltese. Thus, the
trinity of the skin, the flesh, and the soul is connected, and a rhizome is
formed—V’sacpe.
At the beginning of the Epilogue, Mehemet told Sidney that whenever he came
to Malta, he felt as if “a great hush were on this sea and the island its heart,” as if he
had come back to something his own heart “needs as deeply as a heart can” (457).
That is, coming to Malta is like returning home to the heart’s desire. And the heart
which Godolphin couldn’t find in Vheissu nor at the South Pole can be found here at
Malta, “a matriarchal island” (321). That Sidney Stencil finally dies here in Mara’s
domain is not absurd at all. He dies in the sea, returning to the womb, back to nature.
Conclusion
A positive ontology to establish a positive
theory of ethics and social
organization
is one way of reading Deleuze’s philosophy, 43 which is basically a
philosophy of becoming that begins with and pass through “becoming-woman,” 44 “the
41
The dramatic event brings reminiscence of Captain Ahab’s death on the water by Moby Dick, the
gigantic and mysterious white wall. Theodore Kharpetian considers the waterspout as another “V” (84).
42
Deborah Madsen draws an analogy between V. and Mara, relating both through Mara’s association
with Venus. See “Vacillating in the Void? Verbas Vivification in V.” (29-53).
43
Michael Hardt, Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in Philosophy (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P,
1993) xviii.
44
Charles Stivale envisages “becoming-woman” as “the very dynamic zone intermezzo,” The
Two-Fold Thought
of Deleuze and Guattari, 135. For some feminists, “becomiong’woman” is a
controversial metaphor as analyzed in-depth by Elizabeth Grosz’s “A Thousand Tiny Sexes: Feminism
and Rhizomatics,” Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy, ed., Constantin Boundas & Dorothea
Olkowski (New York: Routledge, 1994) 187-210. Also see Tamsin Lorrine’s analysis in “Deleuze’s
Becoming-Imperceptible,” Irigaray & Deleuze (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP)165-88; Claire
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