It is the dark, hard, tobacco-starved, headachey, sour-stomached, middle of the day, a million bureaucrats are diligently plotting death and some of them know it, many about now are already onto the second or third pint or highball glass, which produces a certain desperate aura here.
The quote from Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" captures a bleak and chaotic midday scene. It conveys a sense of unease as bureaucrats, possibly engaged in sinister plots, drown their worries in alcohol. This imagery evokes a world where leisure and desperation intertwine, illustrating a grim reality filled with tension and existential dread.
Pynchon’s depiction of a tobacco-starved environment hints at deeper societal issues, while the characters reflect a collective weariness. The juxtaposition of their mundane bureaucratic tasks against the backdrop of their indulgence in drink adds to the overall atmosphere of despair and disillusionment. This moment serves as a microcosm of the novel's critiques of power and human frailty.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
