Explore the real-world places that appear in V. by Thomas Pynchon. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Norfolk Naval Station, Times Square–42nd Street Shuttle, Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park, Fulton Fish Market Area and 5 more.
Norfolk, Virginia — Profane's Navy past
Benny Profane, recently discharged from the Navy, carries his seafaring past into the novel. The Navy world he leaves behind shapes his drifting existence as a 'yo-yo' who rides the subway shuttle and moves from job to job. His restless lack of ambition makes him the perfect foil for Stencil's obsessive quest.
Naval Station Norfolk was established in 1917 on the grounds of the Jamestown Exposition. It grew into the largest naval base in the world, serving the Atlantic Fleet.
Naval Station Norfolk remains the world's largest naval base. The base is active and restricted, though Naval Station Norfolk offers limited public tours and the nearby Nauticus museum covers naval history.
Visit: Nauticus (museum)
Grand Central to Times Square — Profane's subway rides
Profane, after leaving the Navy, drifts through the city as a 'yo-yo,' riding the subways and the shuttle between jobs and lovers. The subway is his natural habitat, a mechanical circuit that mirrors his aimless, inanimate drifting. It frames the novel's concern with the inanimate and the human.
The 42nd Street Shuttle opened in 1904 as part of the original IRT subway line. It was reconfigured in 1918 and ran until 2021 in its older form before being modified.
The Times Square–42nd Street station is among the busiest stations in the world. The shuttle platform still connects Times Square with Grand Central.
Visit: Times Square–42nd Street Station (landmark)
Lower Manhattan — Home turf of the Whole Sick Crew
The Whole Sick Crew, including Slab, the painter who produces only cheese danishes, spends its time in Village apartments and bars. Their parties and aimless bohemian poses show the novel's satire of the 1950s art scene. Profane drifts in and out of their company, sleeping on couches and avoiding responsibility.
Greenwich Village became the center of American bohemia in the early twentieth century. In the 1950s it was home to Beat poets, abstract expressionist painters, and folk musicians.
The Village remains a vibrant neighborhood of cafes, theaters, and music venues. Washington Square Park anchors its public life.
Visit: Washington Square Park (park)
Greenwich Village — Bohemian gathering ground
The park sits at the heart of the Village bohemia that the Whole Sick Crew inhabits. Characters such as Profane and the Crew move through this milieu of artists, hangers-on, and drifters. It represents the aimless social world that contrasts with Stencil's single-minded hunt.
The park was a potter's field and public gallows before becoming a park in 1827. The marble Washington Square Arch was completed in 1892.
The park is a major public gathering place with a fountain, chess tables, and street performers. It is open daily and is a landmark of New York University's campus.
Visit: Washington Square Park (park)
South Street, Lower Manhattan — working waterfront
Profane's string of odd jobs and ex-sailor sensibility tie him to the city's working waterfront. The harbor region evokes the world of ships and sailors he left behind. It reflects the novel's blend of seafaring and urban drifting.
The Fulton Fish Market operated in Lower Manhattan from 1822 until it moved to the Bronx in 2005. South Street Seaport was the heart of the city's maritime trade.
The area is now the South Street Seaport district, with historic ships, shops, and restaurants. The Seaport Museum preserves the area's maritime heritage.
Visit: South Street Seaport Museum (museum)
Beneath Manhattan — Profane's night job
Profane takes a job hunting alligators in the sewers, a legendary urban myth that the novel treats comically. He and his fellow hunters descend into the city's underworld with rifles, chasing the animals that supposedly grew from discarded pets. The episode mirrors his role as an aimless drifter in the city's hidden depths.
The urban legend of alligators in New York sewers grew in the 1930s after reports of a captured alligator in Harlem. It became a durable piece of city folklore though never confirmed as a widespread population.
The sewers are not open to the public. The legend lives on in popular culture and city tours that mention it.
2nd Avenue & St. Marks Place — East Village newsstand
The East Village and Lower East Side are part of the downtown bohemia in which the Crew circulates. Such corner spots evoke the cheap, shabby milieu of Profane's drifting. They mark the spaces where artists and hangers-on intersect with the city's street life.
Gem Spa opened as a newsstand and candy shop in 1920 and became known for its egg creams. It was a landmark of the East Village for decades.
Gem Spa still operates as a newsstand and convenience store on the corner of St. Marks Place and Second Avenue. It remains a well-known neighborhood landmark.
Visit: Gem Spa (landmark)
Cooper Square — Downtown art and intellectual life
Slab and the Crew's art-world pretensions place them within a downtown scene of painters and students. The novel satirizes the pose of the artist who produces endless cheese danishes. Locations like Cooper Square represent the milieu in which such artistic aimlessness thrives.
Cooper Union was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper to provide free education in art, architecture, and engineering. Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Cooper Union speech in the Great Hall in 1860.
Cooper Union continues as a college of art, architecture, and engineering. The Great Hall hosts public events and lectures.
Visit: The Cooper Union Great Hall (historic site)
Midtown Manhattan — Urban drifting
Profane's wandering through the city includes open stretches of urban park. His movements lack any plan, in contrast to Stencil's methodical hunt for V. The park is a space where drifters like him can pass time without commitment.
Central Park opened in 1858 and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It covers 843 acres in Manhattan.
Central Park is one of the most visited urban parks in the world. It offers walking paths, lakes, a zoo, and numerous landmarks.
Visit: Central Park (park)
Hudson River — Shipping and sailors
The harbor and its piers evoke the world of sailors and ships that frames Profane's past and Stencil's wider search across the globe. The waterfront offers a link between the city and the far-flung places V. is traced to. It echoes the novel's theme of travel and disappearance.
Hoboken's piers were major terminals for transatlantic shipping from the nineteenth century. They served ocean liners and immigrants and later military embarkation.
The Hoboken waterfront is now a landscaped public promenade with parks and views of Manhattan. Pier A Park is a popular public space.
Visit: Pier A Park (park)
More by Thomas Pynchon: Against the Day locations map · All Thomas Pynchon books
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