ATDTDA (14): Frank, who had never flown before, 392-394

[Paul Nightingale]

According to El Espinero Frank "need[s] practice in seeing": he has failed
to match his hunger to the rabbit, ie the means to satisfying hunger. Seeing
implies that what he sees cannot be suppressed (ie seeing "as much as he had
to", 391); as El Espinero says, he has "fallen into the habit" of seeing the
wrong things. However, the clarity of vision that Espinero has in mind
involves hallucination: "Frank was taken out of himself ." etc (392), a
lengthy statement that amounts to a denial of everything he had thought he
amounted to, another kind of Other Side. This experience is inseparable from
his union (of sorts) with "young Estrella"; and again he is shown the way,
not quite wandering aimlessly perhaps, but still reactive rather than
proactive.

Subsequently he does "[find] himself wandering a stone labyrinth" (393), the
ideal image for Frank's progress through AtD: ". each time he chose a
branch, thinking it would lead him out to open air, it only took him
deeper". Cf. the opening of the previous section, in particular: ". allowing
himself at last to be swallowed by, rather than actively penetrating, the
immemorial mystery of these mountains" (391), following an earlier image of
flight ("higher than the last roofless wall ." etc).

Estrella becomes a storyteller, ie she imposes order on the narrative when
describing the origins of the desert, "at the same time becom[ing] Estrella
Briggs". Earlier she had "reminded [him] so abruptly of the other Estrella"
(390), but he could confidently claim to tell them apart ("she was not
Estrella Briggs"). No longer, it seems. Subsequently we're told: "At no
point in this did Frank think he was dreaming ." etc (393). The experience
seems realistic (it "ha[s] the alert immediacy of daytime Mexico ." etc) but
is essentially useless: for Frank, knowledge has to be applicable.