ATDTDA (16): Actually enjoying his solitude, 431-433 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

At the beginning of the chapter we're told that Lindsay "had heard rumours
of a 'Turkish Corner'" etc; but his informant isn't identified (neither is
the "choir of voices" that will tempt him subsequently, 432). He declares an
interest in "lateral resurrection" ("Say, who wouldn't?"); and the opening
section deals with his adventure away from the Inconvenience, "actually
enjoying his solitude, away from the constant chaos of a typical deck
watch". This is a new departure for Lindsay; and the reader is asked to
focus on him as a protagonist, as opposed to a member of the collective,
representative of 'standards', eg, that Darby fails constantly to meet. His
Incipient Gamomania has been identified; and he defends his "governing
desire in life . to be no longer one, but two" (432). He claims to have been
open about this ("When have I ever kept it a secret ..."), but it is news to
the reader.

Having said that, of course, one thinks of the "'eager stampede' to the
rail" to gaze upon a naked woman, 13; or more recently the scene in the
dining hall at Candlebrow, 408-409. At such times the Chums' behaviour
underscores their isolation from women. In Venice, Chick is identified as
"the most worldly of the company, and thus spokesman by default in fair-sex
encounters that might turn in any way ambiguous" (246); but his subsequent
liaison with Renata (252-253) is exceptional. On this occasion, Chick is
AWOL and contemplates not returning to the airship (254). Any kind of sexual
desire must be repressed, it seems, if it threatens to lead to a
relationship; although 'ogling' ("manifestations of a diseased adolescence",
409) is tolerable. In the current section Lindsay, in flashback, is sent to
the BIN, "to undergo a 'battery' of medical tests" (432), or perhaps
conditioning, a kind of re-education programme? In the dining-hall he
distances himself from the behaviour of Miles and Darby with a
self-conscious regard for performance, "blushing and kicking his shipmate
beneath the table" (408): this is to acknowledge the presence of women, to
see himself as the Other.