Crowley quote

[Craig Clark]

I came across this quote last night in John Crowley's _Little, Big_, 
which reminded me of something:

"...the great days of the secret commonwealth of bums were over, the 
days when there were kings and wise men on Lower Broadway, the days 
when the City was marked with their glyphs whose code only the 
initiate could read, when the drunk, the gypsy, the madman and the 
philosopher had their ranks, as firm as deacon, sexton, priest and 
bishop. Of course, over. Join any enterprise, Auberon thought, and 
you'll find its great days are over."

There are many learned references to Lewis Carroll dotted throughout 
the novel: this passage strikes me as a learned reference to someone 
else...

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
 the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
 on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"