ATDTDA (15: An unforgettable recital, 422-424 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

This passage of the novel (from: "Earlier that day ..." to, immediately
below the advert: "But life on the surface ..." etc, 421-423) is marked by
the greater incidence of ellipses, the signifier of absence exposed as such.
Cf. the opening of the section: "... evidence of Trespass everywhere, some
invisible narrative" (418).

After the final ellipsis those Chums "kiting off tax-free to assignments all
over the world" (423) can repress all knowledge of "their 'deps'". Cf. the
opening reference to "the human supernumeraries they had been so carelessly
aviating above all these years" (418). In fact it becomes impossible to
separate so-called "'real' Chums" from so-called "surrogates", supporting
the view that they are one and the same at different times. In this passage
(423-424) "they" refers to those "left to the uncertain sanctuary of the
HMBTA" (423): "And some would drift away ..." etc. Others "return again and
again to the old performance sites, to Venice, Italy, and Paris, France",
two locations that the Chums have seen action at, earlier in the novel,
making this a form of reminiscence. But is it reminiscence of having read
the adventures in question? Cf. Veikko's postcard (84): what is remembered
(here, "again and again") is always a text referring to that which is
absent. Is movement "into the smoke and confusion of urban densities"
similarly a fantasy? Note that these locations were "unimagined when they
began", so all that is necessary is the power of imagination (the "music of
the newer races" is in stark contrast to that played earlier, when any
deviation from the norm was, at least, frowned upon, although such deviation
appears a frequent occurrence and therefore irrepressible: "reprimanded like
everybody else", 419).

The dialogue between "'real' Chums and "surrogates" is, again, imagined:
"... longing to hear ..." etc (423), an expression of fear, the fear of
being left behind. Going back to Chick and Alonzo on 413: "the only remedy
they knew for the cowardice they feared ever crawling within". To imagine
what one fears, being left behind to confront one's "surrogacy", becomes
"the beginning of a certain release from longing ..." etc (424). Until, "one
day, at the edge of one of these towns ..." etc. By the end of this passage,
then, the "they" who were "surrogates" find "waiting for them, as if they
had never been away, ... their ship the good old Inconvenience". Pugnax
greets them, confirming that this is the airship's former crew.