ATDTDA (23): it's way too late anymore (643.10)

[grladams at teleport.com]

An artful turn of the phrase, 
Like something I ran across this morning in side reading.. when TS Eliot,
regarding his being trapped in his loveless marriage to Vivienne, said in
1934

"Nothing but a brilliant future behind me..." 

Trying to find a connection between Stearns and Pynchon. Will discuss more
later. Please, someone, interject now, if someone has already done the
Genealogy. Also doing a bit of genealogy on the George M. Pynchon set...


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Tim Strzechowski dedalus204 at comcast.net
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:06:37 -0600
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: ATDTDA (23): "it's way too late anymore" (643.10)


"For you-all, it's way too late anymore."


Strange.  

I keep returning to this phrase, trying to figure it out.  

In the context of the paragraph, Ewball is commenting to Dwayne on how
Americans are more or less beyond hope because they've "delivered
[themselves] into the hands of capitalists and Christers,"  whereas "folks
down here still have a chance."

But to my ear it's an odd construction. Why follow up "It's way too late"
with the word "anymore"?  Is this Pynchon trying to evoke colloquial
folk-speak, or broken English?  Or is there the subtle suggestion of a
double-negative in the phrase:  wouldn't "anymore" seem more befitting a
sentence like, "It's not too late"?  So, does "It's way too late anymore"
function as an ironic statement by the unwitting Ewball?

Strange.



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