ATDDTA (6): Merely everyday skills, 156-159

[Paul Nightingale]

The new chapter begins with Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe again
juxtaposed, one drawing attention to himself, the other hoping to pass
unnoticed. When SV first appeared, he was associated with "a vast ebb and
flow of anonymity" (31); and here his appearance ("dressed more like a
feed-company clerk ...") is subdued, certainly alongside FW. Similarly, Kit
and Colfax will be juxtaposed, one studious, the other sporting: they are
"well matched" (159). Fax's list of accomplishments is "quite depressing
indeed to any observer with merely everyday skills" (158), but for his
father this in not enough. It seems that SV has chosen Kit as a replacement
for his own son (the "fairly grand offer", 157). This section is preceded by
personalisation of both the corporation (147-148) and the city (153-154):
hence the interchangeable 'nature' (a kind of depersonalisation) of 'real'
people, SV and FW previously, now Kit and Colfax. SV laments "the old
capitalist's curse" (157), the reminder of mortality that comes with sons
who cannot inherit "the aptitudes that matter most, such as a head for
business". Hence, his decision "in the matter of an heir, to search outside
the immediate bloodlines". One is certainly reminded of the way Kit parted
from his own family (104-106); but the principles involved are different.

Kit offers a view of (what might be) meritocracy in action: he has reached
Yale because of ability, not birth. Colfax might eclipse those "with merely
everyday skills"; but the definition of such talent is relative and
subservient to wealth (and the reference to "Princeton-boy posses, 159,
reminds us of WASP racism). Representation of ivy-league universities here
focuses on non-academic displays, sport and tribal rivalry, the performance
of leisure generally. According to SV, the Mr Rinehart "pleasantry" is
"Harvard in a nutshell, if you really want to know" (156). This is another
of the novel's repetitions, another "memory of a memory"; moreover, it
personalises the college. The "pleasantry" represents tradition--as does the
football rivalry, of course--but does so in a way unique to Harvard. Kit's
response offers another way of summarising the rival college: "They teach
Quaternions there instead of Vector Analysis". He offers this information
"helpfully": that philosophy might take the place of "rival school hues" is
perhaps lost on SV. Later on, Colfax will explain his (Kit's) failure with
women ("You chase them away", 158) as the result of an obsession "with all
this arithmetic business".

Kit is "bright-eyed and zealous" about maths; this is his 'state of being'.
Others, it seems, need the stimulus ("alcoholic merriment", 157) that
attends the sporting arena and the rivalries arbitrarily created there.

To Colfax's mind, Kit has a "semi-religious attachment to Vectorism", as
opposed to Colfax's own "daily hymns to Rooseveltian strenuosity" (159).
This recalls Kit's introduction to maths theory: "It could have been a
religion, for all he knew" (98). On that occasion, the phrasing echoed the
earlier reference to Webb's experience: "It would have been almost like
being born again" (87). Here, Colfax emphasises behaviour rather than belief
system, in particular the unlikely (to Colfax) abstemious nature of Kit's
"attachment". Cf: Colfax's own refusal to be seduced when his father "sen[t]
him out on grease runs" etc (157). They are being presented as opposites,
but not really.