AtDDtA(15): A Perfect Record of Doing as You are Told

[Dave Monroe]

   "'I'd be getting in the air,' drawled the Tesla device, 'if I were
you fellows.  Mus't jeopardize a perfect record of doing as you're
told.  Sheep can fly, too, after all.  Can't they?'
   "And presently, with Alonzo Meatman up in the ill-starred Bell
Tower observing through binoculars, the Inconvenience rose over
Candlebrow, with every appearance of sullenness, into a windless and
humid day, and left the Mysteries of Time to those with enough of that
commodity to devote to its proper study."  (AtD, Pt. II, pp. 427-8)


"drawled"

Main Entry: drawl
Pronunciation: \ˈdrȯl\
Function: verb
Etymology: probably frequentative of draw
Date: 1598
intransitive verb
: to speak slowly with vowels greatly prolonged
transitive verb
: to utter in a slow lengthened tone

http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drawl

A drawl is a perceived feature of some varieties of spoken English,
and generally indicates longer vowel sounds and/or diphthongs.
Varieties of English which are said to feature pronounced drawls
include Southern American English and Australian English, especially
Broad Australian English.

The Southern Drawl, or the diphthongization or triphthongization of
the traditional short front vowels as in the words pat, pet, and pit:
these develop a glide up from their original starting position to [j],
and then in some cases back down to schwa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawl


"a perfect record of doing as you're told," "Sheep"

Main Entry: sheep
Pronunciation: \ˈshēp\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural sheep
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English scēap; akin to Old High
German scāf sheep
Date: before 12th century
1: any of various hollow-horned typically gregarious ruminant mammals
(genus Ovis) related to the goats but stockier and lacking a beard in
the male; specifically : one (O. aries) long domesticated especially
for its flesh and wool
2 a: a timid defenseless creature b: a timid docile person; especially
: one easily influenced or led ...

http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sheep


"'Can't they'"

A statement, not a question ...


"the ill-starred Bell Tower"

ill-starred Bell Tower
Cf. Renata's tarot reading on p. 253, the last card of which is The Tower.
Cf. The Bell-Tower by Herman Melville, a famous story with an
"ill-starred bell tower" for sure. "Glancing backwards, they saw the
groined belfry crashed sideways in.", a line from it which echos the
picture used for the pynchonwiki home page.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_428

"'The last card, as always, is the one that matters.'
   "'Which tonight proved to be number XVI, The Tower.  She shufled
and repeated the layout twice more, and each time it converged to the
Tower ...

[...]

   "'Some kind of lightning.  Some kind of fall.'" (AtD, Pt. II, p. 253)

number XVI, The Tower
The Tower (XVI) (most common modern name) is a Tarot trump card that has
many different names, symbols, and meanings. The name and layout in its
current form is a reference to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel,
where God destroys a tower built by mankind to reach Heaven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_%28Tarot_card%29

Divinatory meaning
Disruption. Conflict. Change. Sudden violent loss. Overthrow of an
existing way of life. Major changes. Disruption of well worn routines.
Ruin and disturbance. Dramatic upheaval. change of residence or job
sometimes both at once. Widespread repercussions of actions. In the end,
enlightenment and freedom.

http://www.paranormality.com/tarot_tower.shtml

See also:
http://www.tarothermit.com/tower.htm

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0705&msg=118670

Thanks, Jasper, and see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/weissmann.html

http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weissmann's_Tarot#tower

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0705&msg=118933

Herman Melville, "The Bell-Tower" (1856)

   "So the blind slave obeyed its blinder lord, but, in obedience,
slew him. So the creator was killed by the creature. So the bell was
too heavy for the tower. So the bell's main weakness was where man's
blood had flawed it. And so pride went before the fall."

http://www.melville.org/belltowr.htm

http://www.melville.org/hmpiazza.htm#EBell


"with every appearance of sullenness"

How so?  Why?


"a windless and humid day"

Why?  Help!


"that commodity"

"Remember that time is money."
--Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748)

http://www.bartelby.com/100/245.16.html

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Sourced

TIME IS MONEY - "While this familiar maxim may seem like an invention
of our hectic and impersonal modern society, it actually comes to us
from the ancient Greeks. Antiphon, an orator who wrote speeches for
defendants in court cases, recorded the earliest known version of the
saying in 'Maxim' (c. 430 BC) as 'The most costly outlay is time.'
Centuries later, the notion of time's value appeared in English as
'Tyme is precious,' which was included in Sir Thomas Wilson's 'A
Discourse Upon Vsurye' (1572) and John Fletcher's 'The Chances'
(1647). A century after Fletcher, Benjamin Franklin rendered the exact
working of the current version in 'Advice to a Young Tradesman'
(1748), and the saying afterward came into wide use." From "Wise Words
and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of
Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris
Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/10/messages/570.html

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.answers.com/topic/time-based-currency

The end of time = "the end of the capitalistic experiment"?

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

Vs. ...

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/fukuyama.htm