It was so obvious!
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You're killing me here, Pynchon! Where are your meaty sentences that go on for multiple paragraphs or pages? Stop exposing the weakness of this entire project with lines that can't really be explicated outside of the context of the rest of the work!
*sigh* Fine. Let's talk about the single word in this sentence that matters.
"It"
Ha ha! Just kidding! Although let's clarify "it", at least. "It" here is a pronoun representing the noun "the thing that connects Blinky Morgan to the Michelson-Morley experiment".
"obvious"
The Merriam-Webster definition of obvious is "easily discovered, seen, or understood". I suppose the obviousness of a thought that takes some time (and loads of alcohol) to reveal itself might seem like a paradox because how is it obvious if it wasn't seen from the first? But the concept of something being "obvious" yet unseen until later stems from the archaic definition of it: "being in the way or in front". "How did you not notice that thing that was right in front of your eyes the entire time? The thing was archaically obvious but you didn't notice it." The word is less about something that is easily recognized from the start and more about where the thing lies (in your way; directly ahead) and yet the person still missed it. The word thusly indicates a lack of perception in the person not noticing the thing in front of them. Merle missed the connection not because it was subtle and hard to see but because his perception was off. He was a poor observer. He lacked the light needed to illuminate the night and thus the thing staring him in the face.
Don't worry! I think Merle's revelation is about to be explained in the next sentence! Hold on to your guppies!
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