Inspirations for the Chums of Chance (AtD pg 152) spoiler

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"I will try that on my next reading or next backunderstanding, 
so to speak. Unlike Robin, I cannot see "tone" or style as 
easily as she may. . . ."

"She" agrees, thought it should be noted, probably on 
account of still being able to sing the descant vocal
parts in Beatle songs at age 51, that "she" is used to
the confusion of tone that "she" notes so very often in 
the ears of others. Happens to me all the time, particularily 
when my voice is mediated through some electronic device.


". . . .and I have heard about TRP writing in 
various styles purposely. What I think, perhaps projectively, 
is that certain themes and attendant research in certain 
sections---and the sheer massiveness of ATD---leads me
to think he worked on it over, well, most of his lifetime."

Me too. 
 
"For me, his basic Western revenge plot might go back to 
the time after Warlock and, yes, V."

Yes, but I suspect that TRP is a registered tubeaholic. 
I detect a touch of "Deadwood" as well. But of course, 
"Deadwood": seems an expansion on the language 
deployed in "Warlock".  

"I think the GoldenDawnish British stuff, yes hard-going for 
me, might developed while he researched GR............"

Probably, though for me that stuff goes down like ice cream 
and pie.
 
"And the whole Time stuff was another idea for a book 
that came to TRP after GR......"

Maybe. I find, in general, that Pynchon gets funnier and 
lighter over time---Certainly in "Vineland" (a personal 
favorite), perhaps less easily noticable in "Mason & Dixon".
Some of  AtD's scenes register as TRP's silliest writing, 
some---like his depiction of a great city falling. . . .

"Fire and blood were about to roll like fate on the complacent 
mutitudes. Just at the peak of the evening rush-hour, electric 
power failed everywhere throughout the city, and gas mains 
began to ignite and the thousand local winds, distinct at 
every street-corner, to confound prediction. . . ."

As dark as anything the author has produced. It's almost like a 
geological dig, or the growth pattern of an old redwood, where 
the rings get lighter the closer you get to the bark. Like he's
"Gone Epidermal".