M&D ca. p 100--source?

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Very useful references from jimmy re: V and clocks.  Doubly useful because they also 
remind me it's probabl;y time to reread V. (oh yes, time, just what we happen to be talking
 about--its keepers at least--and just what I happ[en to have about none of  right now).  
This example, however, is obviously the exact opposite of a talking clock: 
>
>"The party, as if it were inanimate after all, unwound like a clock's
>mainspring toward the edges of the chocolate room, seeking some easing of
>its own tension, some equilibrium." (p. 41)

And none of those interesting anthromorphisms in V. seems to strike the same 
connective bell as the way Sobel talks about (paraphrasing) *old friends in inti
mate 
conversation,*  and the actual details in the M & D scene, which has the clocks in an 
affectionate conversation (though they're new friends, right?),  Structural and tonal 
similarites lead me to think Sobel's the source, though as davemarc said there's a long 
horological tradition of the talking clock--which I am ignorant of.

Anyway, when I mentioned methods of composition I wasn't clear enough.  It's not so
interesting that Sobel might be the source, but that, if Sobel is the source, it means Pyn was
 still  revising early sections fairly late in the novel's composition.  No big deal, but we 
know so little about TRP's compositional methods that any gleaning might be of interest.

john m