ATDTDA (16): An awkward moment, 434-443 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

The Chums are passed from one 'expert' to another, Stilton Gaspereaux, "more
than willing to talk about Shambhala, and the Sfinciuno Itinerary" (436):
the Chums are again positioned as an audience, recipients of his vast
knowledge, and consequently, with the exception of Miles, "flabbergasted".
Randolph's question-as-statement ("And this will take us straight to
Shambhala") releases the Chums from their passive state, and they engage
Gaspereaux in a dialogue of sorts. Eventually, he explains: "And a true
follower of this faith had to give all of it up. No sex, not even marriage,
no children, no family ties." (438) He speaks here of the "counter-crusade",
the worship of light; and his description brings to mind Lindsay's Incipient
Gamomania (432). However, it is Chick (who hasn't been BINned, so far as we
know; and back in Chicago he did say he missed his father, 17) who insists
"it's everything that matters" (438). Darby puts the issue succinctly
("Light or pussy?") and provokes Lindsay: is this an exchange we've seen
many times before, Lindsay attempting to discipline Darby, or is Lindsay
thinking of what he has just been through? The ambiguity matches that
surrounding his reference to a "fatal word" on 432.

The "counter-crusade" is an alternative view of history that produces an
alternative elect/preterite; and the Perfects, so-called, are akin to those
who would define Gamomania as "abnormal". Here, "... what you'd call their
normal lives", ie normality as a value-judgement, "depended [on the] level
of imperfection they could accept".