MDDM Ch. 72 The Modal Verb ("must") "or must I rather work..."

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:



>The modal verb ("must") doesn't indicate future tense here either. It's not
> framed as a question at all; it is a statement which accompanies Dixon's
> action of whipping the man "from the Back".


I can follow your grammar, but not your logic. 

I can agree that the modal verb phrase does not indicate future tense
here.
Although it's not easy to tell that it is not framed as a question since 
when Dixon speaks Pynchon uses the question mark as an inflection mark
or whatever, so not having a question mark here doesn't tell us that
Dixon is not framing his "or
must I rather work..." as a question. 

I can think of lots of examples of this phrase, "or must I rather
work..." framed not as a question, so I'm not saying that the phrase
itself is necessarily interrogative, only that I can't quite figure out
how your conclusion, 

{{{it is a statement which accompanies Dixon's
 action of whipping the man "from the Back".}}}

follows from what you say about the modal verb.