"Love at first sight, something like that?"
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Never fall in love with somebody who falls in love at first sight unless they promise never to look at anybody else ever again in their lifetime, especially a mysterious mesmerist. Luckily, the kind of people who believe in love at first sight probably also believe in soulmates and so never even consider that a person who falls in love at first sight might be a dangerous kind of person to expect to remain in a monogamous relationship.
"Didn't run away screaming when I told her how I felt."
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This is a terrible answer to "what first attracted you to her" because Merle already felt something which led him to tell her about it. What caused him to feel that way was what Dally wanted to know. Also, this is a terrible answer because it reminds us how she eventually did run away, possibly while screaming. Two acceptable answers would have been her boobs or her butt. Oh! I just thought of a third: her baby maker! That's all I'm going to list because you wouldn't like how many options I would go through before getting to intelligence or personality. I mean, because those are so obvious! Why would I need to state them?! Duh!
"And, so, what first attracted you to her?"
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Dally asking sophisticated questions when she first learned to talk! This is probably an example of Dally in her later years asking questions. I'm not that terrible at reading comprehension. Pynchon just wanted me to know that Dally has been curious from the start. And why wouldn't she be curious about her missing mother?! What kind of mother leaves their child? And don't think I'm letting fathers off the hook, as if it's somehow acceptable for them to leave their children too! Fuck those guys! Especially that one! You know that one. Not personally, probably, but if you think about it a bit, you can probably figure out which father I'm talking about being that this is me writing that sentiment and you can probably assume that I know one in particular.
Since about the minute she could talk, Dally had been good for all kinds of interesting questions.
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"Dally"
Oh yeah! That's why Erlys's name is constantly in the discourse! Because of her and Merle's child Dally! I completely forgot about her! I guess she's constantly curious about her missing mother. Merle couldn't forget about Erlys if he wanted to, whether or not Dally was asking all kinds of interesting questions since, as was stated earlier, she looks so much like Erlys.
Her name was never far from the discourse of the day.
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That's because one of the defining characteristics of "day" is the light part of it. It's like the most important part of what distinguishes day from night. And, if you remember, Erlys means the light. Also maybe it's just that she haunted Merle's mind as he went about his day and he couldn't help thinking, all the time, how things might be different if she hadn't left. Basically, she's like a little miniature portrait hidden away in his brain which continues to turn up when Merle probably least expects it.
He woke up, understanding at once that the whole purpose of the dream was to remind him, with diabolical roundaboutness, of Erlys Mills.
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"diabolical roundaboutness"
Pynchon describes the way the dream works to get its point across in much the same way almost anybody would describe a book like Gravity's Rainbow. My first thought was, "That's an apt description of House of Leaves but then I remembered I'm reading Pynchon and Pynchon wrote that line and Pynchon most assuredly was saying in this moment to his readers, "You want to know what the point of my book is? Well, we'll get there! At least I've limited my books to several hundred to a thousand pages which all come out as one complete story. You want real diabolical roundaboutedness? Read Tristram Shandy!" Okay, Pynchon probably was most assuredly not saying all that.
Anyway, aside from the strict definition of diabolical which suggests terrible evil as opposed to the way I read Pynchon's use here as a sort of "evil genius," I'd say "diabolical roundaboutness" fits the way Pynchon gets to his points using great intelligence and whimsy. It's also probably why so many people find his books daunting! It's a good description of Pynchon's writing style.
"Erlys Mills"
Obviously the dream was going to be about Erlys and Merle's heartbreak since the paragraph began with how the dream took place not long after Erlys left him for Zombino.
