ATDDTA (6): Suburban fears, 165-167

[Paul Nightingale]

Fleetwood tells Kit of his meeting with Yitzhak Zilberfeld and their
drug/fever-fuelled "discussion about the homeless condition vis-à-vis the
ownership of property", an exegesis that recalls Veikko (82-84). According
to Yitzhak, there is a generalised "suburban fear of those who are always on
the move" (165): this number would include, as he tells it, Fleetwood
himself (and even Kit, who perhaps hears the story he wants to hear).
Yitzhak says: "Everyone must live in a simply-connected space with an
unbroken line around it." Cf: the Apache take on Colorado (83). Cf also: the
earlier description of tribalism at the Yale-Harvard game (156-157).

After a passage of dialogue, where the identity of each speaker is apparent,
there is a paragraph that appears to summarise a part of the discussion
(progress "into the pure land", 166) that cannot be so divided: here, then,
Fleetwood's views are identical with, or indistinguishable from, Yitzhak's,
and there are no "unbroken line[s] around" their separate contributions.

The elephant attack appears inconsequential: nothing happens. However, the
elephant defends its space against intruders. Fleetwood's advice is, "never
run. Run, you'll get trampled." (167) Running, one confesses, admits guilt,
liability; that is, one accedes to the territorial demands of the other.
However, in this "pure land" there are no "competing claims" (166). Nothing
happens: Fleetwood tells Yitzhak to witness the truth of his claim, and then
the text cuts from the present to the future ("next week's Bush Gazette"),
and the subsequent part of the conversation also takes place elsewhere.
Fleetwood's claim that he grew up thinking "it was a time-honoured principle
to do nothing for free" might recall the earlier "famed Gratuitous Midday
Repast" (146).

The final part of the section jumps further ahead to find "the Vibe
patriarch" angered by the disruptive effects of gold (167). Fleetwood is, at
best, a silent witness to the exchange between SV and FW, and perhaps not
present at all. Previously we have seen references to SV's desire to
establish his social status: covering his tracks, the mansion. Here, he
shows his contempt for the new--or more new--money that is coming after him.
It is also a reminder that the capitalist class is not monolithic. This is
more than just a reaction to something called competition: the influx of
gold has changed the nature of the game, and SV doesn't understand it. Cf:
the "competing claims" (166) discussed earlier. Also cf: Kit's ("bright-eyed
and zealous", 158) inability to come to grasps with the non-math world.