ATDTDA (15): Roswell's bounce, 425-427

[Paul Nightingale]

Roswell Bounce appeared back in Ch7, "gainfully self-employed as a
photographer" (60) and ridiculing Merle's "primitive hoodoo" (61). A
rationalist, then; and note his gloss on "these cults who believe the world
will end on such and such a day" (62). In the darkroom (64) Merle asks:
"What is it? They look like spirits, or haunts or something." Roswell: "It's
a negative. When we print this, it'll all flip back to normal." Cf.
Professor Svegli: "... maps begin as dreams, pass through a finite life in
the world, and resume as dreams again" (250).

Here, Roswell is discovered "cheerfully leering at co-eds" (426), which
perhaps identifies him with Darby, eg, in the cafeteria (408-409). He has
been ripped off by the "[s]onofabitch Vibe Corp" (426), another kind of
Higher Authority. Vibe has stolen his knowledge, or intellectual property,
which of course he still retains, enabling him to "[beat] their prices".
Again this recalls Professor Svegli's distinction between "political
struggle" and "timeless faith" (249). Struggle takes place in history, so
Roswell here insists on travelling back in time, pre-Vibe. Chick (for whom
"Time did not so much elapse as grow less relevant", 412) suggests that the
Hypops "impl[ies] some form of passage backward in Time", what Roswell has
"been looking into here all summer" (426). Going back to his photography
lesson, "... it'll all flip back to normal".