"Hey, anybody home?"
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Who are these mysterious strangers sneaking around in the dark, going from encampment to encampment armed with beefsteaks to distract the guard dogs? Seems suspicious! Yelling "Hey, anybody home?" is exactly what I yell whenever I break into somebody's house looking to steal their Beanie Babies. Then if somebody answers, you can pretend you were just there to visit.
As Darby and Chick watched, out of the evening came a giant beefsteak, soaring in an arc, slowly rotating, and hit the dirt almost exactly between Pugnax's front paws, where he regarded it for a while, a single eyebrow raised, one would have to say, disdainfully.
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"beefsteak"
I thought the definition of beefsteak would be more interesting than "a thick cut of beef" but that's pretty much it. It's really the same definition as steak so I don't know why there are two words for it. Was there a time in our country's history when somebody would offer you a steak and you'd accept and then they'd give you a steak from a crocodile's ass? So people had to start specifying they want "beefsteak" so that they wouldn't be tricked into eating a crocodile's butthole?
Judging by Pugnax's reaction to the beefsteak, he probably would have preferred the croc's butthole.
"As Darby and Chick watched"
This is code, like in a British crossword puzzle (or cryptic crossword as they're known in America), that means "the following sentence should be viewed as a scene from a movie." See the following note!
"soaring in an arc, slowly rotating"
This is one of those scenes where Pynchon thinks he's directing a movie. I also picture Pugnax looking at the steak and then looking directly into the camera to make his disdainful expression. Then the audience roars with laughter even though this scene was prominently featured in the trailer and they'd all already seen it. Maybe the laughter was more of the "Oh yeah! I remember seeing this in the trailer! Remember seeing this in the trailer, other movie goers also laughing uproariously?! Oh ho ho! So good, that first time I saw this. But better now because I get to experience it again while also experiencing the memory of the first time I laughed at it!"
Pugnax stood his ground but had ceased barking, apparently judging the visitors nasally acceptable.
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"nasally acceptable"
I don't know what smells a dog finds non-threatening but judging by the kinds of things they love to eat and roll around in, I'd rather smell threatening to a dog than non-threatening. Pugnax is the character insert for Scrappy Doo and I don't know what smells Scrappy loved. Boxing shorts after a long bout? The smell of a shin guard after it's been peeled off a shin after a lengthy match? Scooby Doo's butthole? If Pugnax were the character insert of Scooby Doo, I'd assume the visitors were covered in meatball subs.
Pugnax is also the character insert of the audience so Pugnax feeling calmer about the new characters makes me feel calmer about the new characters because I know Pugnax feels what I feel and thinks what I think therefore the reverse of that is also true.
"Here you go," called an invisible voice, "nice doggy!"
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Can you pet the dog in Pynchon's Against the Day?
No.
