ATDTDA (16): An awkward moment, 434-443 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

At the outset, an "excitement peculiar to under-sand travel could be felt as
ship's personnel moved busily ..." etc; and "[a]ny observer ... might have
watched, perhaps in superstitious terror ..." etc. All of which recalls the
optimism of the opening page's departure to Chicago (3), followed by the
brief glimpse of how those on the ground might respond to "lavatorial
assaults" (5). Our first view of the Saksaul, then, echoes our first view of
the Inconvenience (dialogue similarly signifies authority); and later on the
first sighting of "unmistakable ruins in the Graeco-Buddhist and
Italo-Islamic styles" (438), "ruins written on by combat ancient and modern"
(439) contrasts with the way the Chicago Fair, in the first instance,
signifies 'progress' or 'modernisation'. Cf. also the opening description of
Candlebrow on 406: "... managing somehow, though itself not much older than
a human generation, to present an aspect of terrible antiquity, evoking a
remote age before the first European explorers, before the Plains Indians
they had found here, before those whom the Indians remembered in their
legends as giants and demigods".

The Chums are introduced as Captain Toadflax's "guests", responding "as they
had long learned to do, in cheery unison". Cf. the Tesla-voice on 428:
"Mustn't jeopardise a perfect record of doing as you're told." And then,
following Toadflax's self-aggrandising speech on 435: "If any sinister
meaning was hidden here, it either escaped the attention of the Chums or
they heard it just fine, and artfully concealed that recognition." They wish
to appear innocent, then. The reference to Miles' "appetizing picnic
luncheons" aside, the Chums aren't identified individually here; to
Toadflax, they are no more than an audience for his performance of authority
(cf. the Commandant/Alonzo scene on 421-422). He refers to them as no more
than messengers ("the map you fellows brought", 435; "you'll be eager to
have a look at the map you've so kindly brought us" as a means to getting
off the subject, 436). When Randolph is identified, "gazing nearly
mesmerised out the viewing windows" (436), he receives a somewhat
patronising response from Toadflax. Earlier: "These windows here are
basically just for the entertainment of lubbers such as yourselves" (434).
If the Chums project 'innocence', Toadflax sees 'ignorance'. Subsequently,
in Nuovo Rialto, the quest for Shambhala is exposed as a pretext for the
quest for oil: for Darby, "one more bit of evidence proving how little
adults could be trusted" (441). By the end of the section, of course,
following the botched attempt to steal/borrow/peruse logbooks, Toadflax has
been forced to revise his view of the Chums.