Question

[James W. Horton]

On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Richard P. Muller wrote:

> 
> I have a question. I'm mid-way through Gravity's Rainbow, and I think
> I'm going to make it this time. One of the things that I've been
> curious about is why Slothrop says "a-and" all of the time. Does he
> stutter, perhaps when he's nervous (he seems to say "a-and" rather
> than "and" at stressful times) or am I missing something?
> 
> Thanks for any help you can offer.
> 

Richard:

	To me, the "a-and" is a sort of nervous stutter, as you suggest,
though I don't think Tyrone is generally a stutterer.  But the "a-and" also
strikes me as a kind of semi-corny vaudevillian inflection to his speech--
something he uses to slip in something quickly, as if to say "but that's not
all, folks!"
	Think of the "a-and" as prounounced like this:

	A
	 a   a n d !
	  a a
	   a

	I don't know if the diagram helps, but there it is.


					Jim