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

[Mark Kohut]

Ewball, now arms merchant, sounds massively cynical to me with 
some kind of colloquialism...

 "it's always been a bad time" ............It's always been doomed up there"



----- Original Message ---
-
From: Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net>
To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:06:37 AM
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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