ATDDTA (6): Gone West, 171-174

[Paul Nightingale]

At the start of Ch15, Lew's perception of the Kieselguhr Kid, a haunting
figure (or "presence behind him ..., always just out of eyeball range ...")
echoes Kit's pursuit of Fleetwood in the previous chapter ("a dark figure
receding into the invisible", 163). This "notorious" figure (171), "of prime
interest to White City Investigations", is somewhat mythical: no one knows
who he is, and "[d]ifferent tellers of the tale" (172) are bound to
disagree, but he serves to author, conveniently so, any "unsolved cases" (or
"higher-risk tickets") the larger agencies want to "[sell] off to
less-established and accordingly hungrier outfits like White City" (171).
There is profit in bombers. Cf. the profitable side of disaster
("[s]treet-vendors ..." etc, 145).

Previously, Fleetwood also was a somewhat ghostly figure: introduced to Kit
in the form of gossip (159), he then became a kind of alter ego. As
previously noted, Lew has followed the classical C19th trajectory by going
west, even if he only does so because the Old West is no longer there
(52-53): the "American Cowboy" eulogised by Professor Vanderjuice (53) will
prove as elusive as the Kid (whose image, filtered through Lew's perception,
now invokes the spaghetti western, a revisionist account). At the very end
of the section, Burke will hope his brother's trial is "moved down to Denver
..." etc (174): a journey that reverses Lew's movement in the hope that some
kind of justice will obtain under the watchful gaze of "the papers back
east".

Reference to "Butch Cassidy's gang" (172) and untrustworthy "eyewitnesses"
confirm the mythical status of this West. Both "Dr Lombroso" and
"[t]heorisers about the recently discovered subconscious mind" feature as
attempts to colonise this West on behalf of science, a form of detective
work that stands in opposition to Lew's own practice. Indeed, the wording
here ("recently discovered ...") emphasises the function of Freud et al as
explorers.

The scene between Lew and Burke Ponghill (172-174) allows a discussion of
the Kid as both a 'real' person and a figment of the imagination. He is
reconstructed as the author (a "voice", 173) of letters that reveal his
'true' self; as well as the subject of other letters mostly "proposing
marriage". Burke even suggests the Kid has "a right to his privacy" where
his letters are concerned.

Towards the end of the section: "The conflict was explicit, between the
State and one's blood loyalties." (174) Cf. Webb's speech to Kit: "You're
either my boy or theirs, can't be both." (105)