FW: The Small Rain, Low-Lands : A Few Questions

[rj]

Yes, there's a mention of "two D-8 bulldozers" on p 64 as well, so I can
see that maybe this gravelly residue has been heaped into a large mound
which could be a "tower" or "pinnacle". Just the picture I had of the
situation at this point was that Flange was really throwing caution to
the wind, not only leaving his old life behind but actively putting
himself into a risk situation. He lets himself be lead off into a
surreal place by a very mysterious figure who he knows nothing about,
and who could be luring him into a gypsy lair where he might be robbed
or even murdered. Nerissa's haunting call could be a siren song: "Anglo,
come to me". (Lotsa sea myths and imagery here.) So, on top of the "bank
run" there's this ominous silhouette high above as he descends into the
very heart of the dump, even if it's another midget it will look really
big from where he is down there, and so the chances are his ship's going
to get smashed on the rocks (it doesn't) but still he follows her. He's
quite brave (or stupid. Or lucky.)

The thematic thing is interesting, even though Mr P seems to dis this
story even more than the others in his 'Intro'. The conceit of the dump
as a spiral, working into the heart of what's been discarded by society
to get at some truth or core reality, recalls Tony Tanner's 
distinction between "open" and "closed" texts, the move from one
approach to fiction to another approach, a transition which Mr Tanner,
at least, very much locates in Mr P's oeuvre:

"The spiral is an open-ended form; the circle is closed .... It would
seem that one way of putting the problem for some contemporary American
novelists is how to break out of the circle into the spiral; in going
around in a circle, narrative degenerates into cliché and language
degenerates into a purposeless jumble of letters and empty spaces, the
remnants of a code no longer transformable into messages." (*Scenes of
Nature, Signs of Men*, Cambridge University, New York, 1987, p. 190)

I wonder if this is where Mr Tanner picked up on that notion? 

Signing off. Best wishes to all. (No eulogies, please.)

robj