The Devil & Tom Foley Walker

[alice wellintown]

As noted in the AtD Wiki and perhaps elsewhere, Walker, Foley, special
assistant to Scarsdale Vibe and "deputy of Wealth" was Vibe's
substitute conscript during the Civil War,  subsequently taking a
bullet to the head, which gives him the ability to hear
"communications from far, far away," like those Puritanical and
"righteous men who believed it was God they heard whispering", and we
can compare & contrast, ironically, this hearing power with the
Deafness/Madness of American Crowds or Mobs, what Yeats calls "blind
men battleing blind men ...fall[ing] into the ditch, with Bob
Meldrum's mal-ear-drums deafness;  one hears William Blake'sSatanic
whispers from above and below the hammering Mills while the other,
though deaf,  can hear a penny drop on a Vibrating Mountain but can't
here a human voice devine begging for human Mercy.

And the Wiki notes:

There is a possible connection to playwright Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe
(author of Dr Faustus) here, in that Chris 'Kit' Traverse makes a
Faustian bargain with Vibe, via Foley Walker, Walker perhaps playing
Mephistopheles to Vibe's Lucifer. There's also a hint of bilocation in
Mephistopheles's claim to be simultaneously with Faustus and in Hell.
Also, the three men present during the fight in which Marlowe was
fatally stabbed were Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley,
this last being not too far from 'Foley'. Also, among the sixteen
jurors at the inquisition into Marlowe's death was one Adrian Walker.
So, Poley and Walker, Foley Walker. Coincidence?
Coalhouse Walker is a character in E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime, a novel
that overlaps with ATD in some time frames and in some themes.

I would add that in Eglish P became F. So "Fish" and not "Pish" as in
the Romance Languages & Co.

So Poley is Foley.

I would add Irving's short story, "The Devil and Tom Walker." Of
course Pynchon, as an early critic noted, read Irving and made use of
Rip and other stuff.
Irving's Walker is worth re-reading as the Devil is a complex and
ironic figure. In fact, let me say something very bold here: Read it
and you will have a much improved understanding of  how Pynchon's
characters are constructed. In Irving's Tale, the Faust Legend is the
source of parody. Pynchon always works with one.  Irving is critical
of the extermination of the Indian Peoples and Lands, Walker walks in
an Indian burial ground and meets the Devil there. The Devil is the
Black man. Yes, a name for the Devil, but also and African-American
man. The Devil is also an Native American man. Any way, read it if you
have time.

Playlist   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7OFJ9v67Y