M&D p. 10: you know the sort of thing I mean

[Monte Davis]

​"​
One of those moments Hindoos and
​
Chinamen are ever said to be having, entire loss of Self, perfect union
​
with All, sort of thing.
​"​


I like the bathetic fall from "Striving to Express the Ineffable" to "WTF,
you know what I mean."

No big thematic deal, just to flag this recurring Pynchonian usage. It
signifies the same as the common form in this post's title, but a word or
comma is suppressed, a clause structure unfinished, to create a little slip
of syntactical gear:

"...hardly do to be slipping in Goat Shit whilst trying to get ten or
twelve Guns off in proper Sequence, sort of thing." (32)

“Eeh!” Dixon amiably waves his Hat. “Which half [of the Copley Medal] do
thou fancy, obverse or reverse?”

“What?” Mason frowning in thought, “Hum. Well I rather imagin’d we’d...share
the same side,— a Half-Circle each, sort of thing....” (709)


Be not deceiv’d by any level of the Exotick they may present you, Kilts,
Bag-Pipes sort of thing. Haggis. (745)


The very first touch: he’d been saying something mean, a bit of the usual
Mexico self-reproach—ah you don’t know me I’m really a bastard sort of
thing--" (GR 120)


 “But then you don’t actually *talk* to him,” ah, Sammy’s so good at

this, softly-softly, “I mean it’s none of your telegraphers in the middle
of the night having a bit of a chat sort of thing . . . .” (GR 217)


"...even back when this [Candlebrow U] was all prehistoric around
here, dinosaurs,
giant ferns, flammivomous peaks everywhere sort of thing. . . .” (AtD 407)


"...on the topic of the Queen whose image appeared on the obverse. “I tell
them she’s alive,” he admitted, with little embarrassment. “That she is our
greatest shaman. She has conquered time. She never ages. Sort of thing.”
(AtD 776)
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