ATDTDA: That graceful ending

[Monte Davis]

Paul M:
> Hate to sound flippant,  but judging from the  paragraphs leading up  
> to it, it can mean just about anything you want it to mean.

Not flippant at all to my ear (neither you nor TRP)... keeping in mind the
staggering richness of detail and hyper-super-overdetermined implication he
has built up on each side of the coin:

A) The Chums are our best, truest selves, rising above the detritus of all
our mistakes and carelessness and sloth into something unimaginably better

B) The Chums are our most glozing, neutered, self-deluded selves, still
telling pretty stories about a cosmic song as they rise to meet the
screaming across the sky

To me it's as far as can be from an abdication of some authorial
responsibility to tell us how it turns out ("So, Tom, whaddya *really*
think?").

Much more like "Mesdames et messieurs, les jeux sont fait."

Or, if you like:

"Now, everybody--"