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

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Yes, I think the scene resonates with a lot of things which were 
happening at the time. Pirate's "talent" would see his psyche crowded 
with all sorts of terrible thoughts and memories, and the process of 
dream might be weaving these together into a coherent narrative which 
combines bits and pieces from a lot of different sources (so that the 
dream itself is like a "carriage, built on several levels").

Just on that "view finder" in the simile, it's more likely to be from a 
camera, which ties in better with the type of work Pirate does.

best

On 26/10/2005, at 1:13 AM, Ghetta Life wrote:

>
>
> 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.
>