"The Evacuation still proceeds..." GR Part 1 Section 1

[Ghetta Life]

I think you interprtation works re. the Nazi death trains.  I also related 
these train-evacuees with the shell-shocked patients that end up in the 
"care" of Dr. Pointsman at the White Visitation who are descrbed in all 
their pitifulness soon after this episode.

Ghetta

>From: jbor at bigpond.com>
>... pp. 3-7, coupla weeks
>
>Pirate's dream of the Evacuation which opens the novel is not just any 
>normal dream, and it's not just about the evacuations from London which 
>were happening in 1944, though that provides the pretext. Pirate's "talent" 
>for getting into the thoughts and fantasies of others means that he has 
>"seen" what's going on in the Nazi death camps too, and has empathised with 
>the prisoners on the transports. While he has been able to manage his 
>telepathic skill over the years, it is in dream, where his conscious mind 
>and psychological defence mechanisms are in abeyance, that the true horror 
>of the Nazi 'Final Solution' is dredged up from within his subconscious, 
>manifesting in imagery and dialogue. Pirate's surreal dreamscape which 
>opens the novel is triggered by the evacuations which were going on in 
>London at the time, because these are a reminder to him, or to his 
>conscience, of the "evacuations" which have been going on in Germany since 
>the late 1930s.

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