First line of Against the Day?

[Carvill John]

>white goes twisting peppermint-stick down
>> > thousands of feet of night. "
>> >
>
>One of the sentences I have problems understanding. Is he comparing 
>snowflakes to the peppermint-sticks or is 'white' something else?

It's the snow lying in the grooves in the cables, forming the white part of 
the 'peppermint-stick', twisting down through the night. It's just such a 
beautiful, poetic image, and so uniquely inventive. *That* to me is what 
Pynchon's core appeal is all about.