ATDTDA (15): Long as you play harmonica, 418-419

[Paul Nightingale]

The new section begins with "evidence of Trespass everywhere"; however, this
is an "invisible narrative occupying, where it did not in fact define, the
passage of the day". Against the day, then? Note that "evidence of Trespass"
becomes: ". it was soon evident that . a neuropathy had taken over ." etc.
And only then: "The Trespassers had studied their targets closely ." etc, "a
neuropathy" transformed (transmuted?) into, or personalised (?) as,
Those-who-trespass. The trespass-agent in question focuses on "the Chums'
unquestioning faith . a belief which over the years many had come to confuse
with a guarantee"; and we haven't forgotten the term "faith" was used a
couple of pages back by Mr Ace, whose "seekers of refuge" are those who
undermined "the prevailing economic faith" by exposing "the whole capitalist
illusion" (415). The narrative therefore juxtaposes one "unquestioning
faith" to another, in the process noting that any challenge will meet
resistance.

At the beginning of the previous section Chick reads Alonzo as "classically,
what a homeopathist would call 'the lycopodium type'", readily identified
because "[s]omehow the Chums organisation attracted these in large numbers"
(413), ie the organisation attracts those who are receptive to homeopathic
remedies: as already indicated, Chick here seems to be projecting here, in
some way identifying with Alonzo (his "sky-brother"). In the current section
the belief/guarantee confusion is what makes the Chums vulnerable to
infection; but there is the possibility of a positive outcome (eg "bravery .
as the only remedy they knew for the cowardice they feared").

As with Trespass, so with those "ready to deal with Hell itself": the
existence of traitors ("more than one") is "widely known, though not their
identities" (418). Cue the McCarthyite hysteria and Faustian pacts; and
those hoping "to break free of the sinister contracts they'd been gulled
into signing, even if the price be their immunity to death" are
differentiated from those opting for "lateral solutions". The latter include
"the crew of the Inconvenience" as they "drift into the brief aberration in
their history known as the MAHB": the phrase "brief aberration" carries both
negative connotations and the promise, indeed expectation, of survival
(subsequently: "As if in a dream, they would come to recall ...). And that
"drift into" hardly suggests careful deliberation. Cf. at the top of the
paragraph: choice, "sidestepping the crisis", etc.

Meanwhile, those who have been so "gulled", "turn[ing] in panic to the
corrupt embrace of the Trespassers ." etc, want only "to regain the early
boys'-book innocence" they have recently lost. But this "innocence" was
itself an illusion (not unlike "the whole capitalist illusion" to which
"boys'-book innocence" is juxtaposed as a form of writing, the
world-as-text) they must have been "gulled" into embracing in the first
place.

At the beginning of the section Chums are juxtaposed to "the human
supernumeraries they had been so carelessly aviating above all these years".
Their disregard is again thoughtless, based on the belief/guarantee
confusion; yet, by the bottom of the page, they are to be recruited, "not as
visitors to a summer Conference but as full-time music students". And then,
like Frank joining Gaston Villa's band (314-315), they have the appropriate
attire and have learned to integrate musically (419).