ATDTDA (17): You want work, you tell them yes, 462-468 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

Given that he doesn't speak to Stray, the scene in Fickle Creek is
inconsequential; and Frank moves on to Denver. Here, what is emphasised is
how little things have changed: "... it was still Ed Chase's town, and Frank
began to fall back into the old habits of squandering time and money" (465).
In contrast to Stray at breakfast, Moss Gatlin acknowledges Frank
straightaway, "as if they'd only seen each other yesterday" (like Stray, of
course, the Reverend has embraced new forms of motorised transport). In
Cripple Creek, Frank sees defeat: "The Union had gone invisible if it was
there at all" (466), another parallel existence, then. If Frank thought he
could go back (eg to "old habits"), this is another reminder of change: "...
how forlorn and beaten down that recent battleground had become".

And then Frank is wakened "by loud screams from the room adjoining" (467);
and meets Julius, whom the reader (perhaps with a little help from Pynchon's
blurb) will 'recognise' as Groucho Marx. Of course, Julius isn't, as yet,
Groucho; perhaps driving Mr Archer's wagon is "the spur line of his destiny"
(460). When Julius describes "the old show-business curse" (467) one might
think back to Dally in New York (337ff). And when he says he knows where
Mayva is, Frank responds: "... don't surprise me she learned to make ice
cream too" (468), another take on Julius' "curse". With Moss Gatlin Frank
has referred back to his quest (465), killing Sloat and/or Deuce is another
example of a job taken on, no previous experience.