GRGR(13) DP's song

[JL]

jeremy o :
>Reading "If you see a train this evening" on pp. 283-4, I hear Pete
>Seeger and Arlo Guthrie singin "The Hobo's Lullaby".
>

good call; I was thinking more of _Folsom Prison Blues_ :

' but those people keep a movin`, and that`s what tortures me. '

Pynchon's lyric is for the preterite hobo: those who've
missed the train (surely a 'wooden blanket' is a coffin).
Its a hymn where Trains are portrayed as means of spritual
transportation (representing religion?) but points out that 
their promises are empty, they are driverless.  They have
value only to the hopeless.
Yet it seems to accept the pre-ordination ('meant for'); a-and
of course it carries the sinister baggage of Nazi cleansings 
(the cities are empty).  You can read it as a plea to put up
with your lot; in which case you might ask: who wrote it, & why?

anyway, I think it's marvellous.

JL
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 we've been talking 'bout Jackson
 ever since the fire went out      [ - johnny cash ]
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