"196, 1, 1 Turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart... the centre cannot hold. -- Yeats

These words are from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," which tells of an Christ/anti-Christ figure being borne of humanity's chaotic history (Donoghue 95-96). It illustrates V's vision of a chaotic world, but V believes that out of the chaos will come order. This is also foreshadowing, for V is the book's Christ figure and Evey is it's second coming."

217, 2, 2 "Do as thou wilt... that shall be the whole of the law."

This is Aleister Crowley's "Law of Thelema," from his 1904 publication The Book of the Law. Crowley was a controversial and misunderstood magician and occultist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He claimed that this book was dictated to him by his guardian spirit, a "devil-god" incarnation of the Egyptian god Set, whom Crowley called Aiwas. Although some interpret the law as allowing pure anarchy, it may actually mean that "one must do what one must and nothing else," (Guiley 76).