“What Machine is it that bears us along so relentlessly? We go rattling thro’ another Day,- another Year,- as thro’ an empty Town without a Name, in the Midnight…we have but Memories of some Pause at the Pleasure-Spas of our younger Day, the Maidens, the Cards, the Claret,- we seek to extend our stay, but now a silent Functionary in dark Livery indicates it is time to re-board the Coach, and resume the Journey. Long before the Destination, moreover, shall this Machine come abruptly to a Stop…gather’d dense with Fear, shall we open the Door to confer with the Driver, to discover that there is no Driver…no Horses,…only the Machine, fading as we stand, and a Prairie of desperate Immensity…”
― Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
Tag Archives: tractor
Deere
Well, I’m working on the new railroad
With mud up to my knees
I’m digging for big John Henry
And he’s so hard to please
And I’ve been all around this worldHang me oh hang me and I’ll be dead and gone
It’s not the hanging that I mind it’s laying in the grave so long
And I’ve been all around this worldWell, the new railroad is ready, boys
And the cars are on the track
And if our women leave us
Money’ll bring ’em back
And I’ve been all around this world—- Working on the New Railroad (trad)