CyranoRox
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Valerie's statement
My recollections are difficult, and some part is fading; I was very ill and worn. I had been in the prison a long time, my life shrinking away, cold and stupefied.
I knew Ruth was gone by the extra roughness of the guards, though I was almost past making the effort to understand speech. I mourned, and sat. When I knew I was going to die, soon, I took out the paper and pencil I had been hoarding for some attempt at getting a message out, knowing at last that if a message brought help, I should not be there to see it. That was the worst. And then a last spring of defiance moved me to use that treasured paper to tell my story to my neighbor, to reach one person, to give the love to someone, anyone really. If the guards find it, I expected to be killed at once, but they would know that I might, with the scrap of my life they left to me, commit the crime again of choosing who I would love. Funny, we all heard about room 5, but I had no idea that it was the room next to mine.
I declined quickly after that. From not caring to move, I became too weak to move; it was too much effort to breathe. The last certain contact was the guard pulling me onto a dolly and rolling me out. I thought I tasted clean air for a moment, and then I was dumped into the vague place.
What that was I can’t fully describe. Empty, but jumbled. Many people, but no meeting, no contact, and no faces. Dull and echoing, but close and stuffy. I lost all sense of time. I might have wandered, I might have stood for days and days- and you seem to think it was years. I don’t understand how that could be. I was so numb, so closed.
But that is all seen from the end, so to speak – first I saw a tall figure hurrying to me, and then I saw that I had been dazed and wandering. He was so definite, so solid, I had to pay attention. And he called me by name, and I knew that voice. I must have said so, for he replied, “Of course you do. I was the man in Room 5”. Such a flourish, such an absurd precision, such a comic lilt – surely no jailer– surely no jailer would come daffing and dancing? -though it was only his quick step and turn, hitting his marks like an actor on stage But. Before I could stop myself, I asked him, “Is this a trick?”, and to my utter surprise he laughed, saying “All the women I meet seem to ask me that. No, no trick. But” – with a droll **** of one brow – “I did read your letter. Do you still love me?” I suppose I was swept up in the atmosphere of fantastical gallantry he brought, because I nodded and laughed. He held out a hand with an extravagant grace, and I took it – and then the thought of Ruth came flooding back and I cried her name.
“Ah yes, Ruth; ruth is part of the plan. We are going to escape, if you will trust me, and Ruth shall be found”. He told me that I had to put on his clothes, and I realized that he was in a kind of fancy dress; that I had to keep silent as we went, and I had to hide my face until the time. When I was dressed up the same – god knows where he had the extra costume – we started moving and more people, all dressed up alike, drew near and joined us. I think he held my hand for a while. It felt like a grand, solemn holiday, like some school festival that depended on everyone keeping the rule.
It was a long walk, and before we got to any knowable place, I knew that Ruth was walking beside me. Her breath, her step: I knew her through the disguise. And as we began to see light, I realized that the man was wearing a mask – and so were we all. That was all right; I knew who he was. We were going to walk out, wearing his face.
What I knew that night I cannot now remember, how it all made sense; only, i remember that I knew. I am here, and I am well, and Ruth is by my side. For now, that is more than enough; I will take up work soon, and we will live. I lost the man in the crowd, once we reached the city, you couldn’t tell him apart, but should I ever hear that voice again, I will know it.
Last edited by CyranoRox, 3/25/2009, 9:18 am
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3/25/2009, 8:26 am
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Doctor Delia
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Re: Valerie's statement
Dear Cyrano,
This is truly brilliant. You always seem to find aspects of the plot that no one else has thought about. It would never have occurred to me to look at Valerie's "resurrection" from her point of view. I hope you won't be cross with me for putting quotation marks around the word resurrection.
(A little background for those who may be wondering what we are talking about. A few weeks ago, Cyrano and I were having a conversation about the true meaning of the final scene in "V4V" when all of the people dressed as V unmask revealing many indivduals whom we know are deceased: Gordon, Valerie and Ruth, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you interpreted that as a resurrection, whereas I interpreted it as mere metaphor. I never really believed those people had come to life but that the unmasking scene was put there to visually underscore Evey's description of who V was. He was "all of us.")
Nevertheless, it IS interesting to consider your interpretation, because it introduces a level of spirituality that I would not normally associate with "V4V."
You have mentioned that V becomes a Christ-like figure by the end of the movie, and it would make sense that his followers could have everlasting life; however, I can't conceive of Jesus as having a murderous vendetta (in the Apocrypha, maybe, but not in the Gospels.)
Anyway, it's nice to view the scene from her point of view. I wonder what Gordon's would be like?
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3/26/2009, 4:08 pm
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CyranoRox
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Re: Valerie's statement
's OK, dear doctor; you can put quotes anywhere you like.
glad you liked it; your ideas were a major part of the inspiration.
*happy grin*
i tried to keep within the llmits of natural without insisting on supernatural; and that, perhaps, strictly goes no farther than the pagan Orpheus
tis true, there are elements in the movie that directly contradict my reading; the clever movie people intended a sharp ambiguity between two very different strains of meaning. an interpretive tradition, sometimes used by sufi poets, allows for the meaning to be carried in subtext, even when the surface seems to say the opposite. so, in subtext, the final set of foes are demons, not men. But, as in real life, the text does not amount to a compelling proof of what it seems to offer - and that structural resemblance is itself part of the evidence.
No insurrection without resurrection! 
Last edited by CyranoRox, 3/27/2009, 9:32 pm
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3/27/2009, 9:21 pm
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