Autumn deepened among the desolate city blocks, an edge appeared to the hum of life here, invisible sometimes and furtive as worn boot-heels vanishing round the corners of the stately arcades where the boys resorted, in great shabby rooms, among the smells of stale animal fat and ammonia on the floor, with glass-roofed steam-tables offering three choices of sandwich, lamb, ham, or beef, all heavy on the fat and gristle, stale odors, frown-lined women slapping together meat and bread, a shaken spoon that smacked the flour-heavy gravy on like plaster, eyes cast downward all day long, behind them in front of the mirror rising a pyramid of cheap miniature bottles, known hereabouts as "Mickeys," holding three choices of wine, red, white, and muscatel.
* * * * * * * * * *
Speaking of extended duties destroying morale . . . .
Pynchon turns so quickly from the Chums seeming to enjoy their time at the Fair and keeping company with their new friend Lew, to suicide, depression, and job weariness that I barely could tell what was happening. Whatever the spell or orders or mission keeping them in Chicago, it had caused the boys to find themselves long past the limits of their cheer's endurance. Was it Heino's talk of the death of the Frontier? Lew's gift, an inadvertent reminder of suicide? The stench of death forever hanging over The Stockyards, and thus, the city itself? Or was it simply the amount of time at a single location with the knowledge of the work they were doing slowly dawning on them, that they were now participants in making the lives of the working class even more miserable by helping union busters?
The tone and mood has shifted. The Chums now walk a "desolate" environment. Anxiety and worry, "an edge to the hum of life," has settled around their routines. They have "resorted" to "shabby rooms" with this depressing description of the food served and the beat down women serving it.
"resorted"
I just wanted to drop the definition of resorted here as explanation of where the boys have found themselves: "turn to and adopt (a strategy or course of action, especially a disagreeable or undesirable one) so as to resolve a difficult situation." I assumed they spent downtime either aboard the Inconvenience or, as earlier, in camp nearby where it is moored. But earlier they spoke of room aboard for supplies and perhaps this mission has gone on so long that they've found themselves with scant food left, thus having to "resort" to these depressing dining halls with gristle and fat sandwiches slapped together by the most downtrodden of women.
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