ATDTDA (2): Subtle Psychology (wayward thoughts)
Paul Nightingale
isread at btopenworld.com
Mon Feb 5 23:23:13 CST 2007
What the two scenes have in common is that a character (Lindsay,
Vanderjuice) has been placed in a situation they find threatening.
On Lindsay's pessimism (21):
I said earlier his status (as catch-all second-in-command aboard the
Inconvenience) depended on the inadequacies of Darby and Chick. One might
add that he is positioning himself in relation to Miles also. I also think
it important that Lindsay doesn't 'speak', he "mutter[s] ... perhaps only to
himself", perhaps to deny Miles' optimism: to speak to Miles would be to
confirm his (Miles' own) status as an equal. The speech is an assertion.
Again, perhaps.
On Professor Vanderjuice and Foley Walker (31):
As with the Chums earlier, in particular Randolph and Lindsay, a change of
circumstances is marked by a change of status for the Professor. Cf him with
the Chums, (their "longtime friend and mentor", 29; and "eminent Yale
savant", 30) to his appearance here, "as an insecure young actor" (31). His
behaviour at the restaurant (30) is explained by the scene with Walker (31).
There is continuity from the previous section ahead of the break. As a prop,
here juxtaposed immediately to Vanderjuice's hat, Foley Walker's knife
serves a similar function to Vibe's cane; his description of "that whole
hootenanny" recalls the rationalisation of modern capitalism (and see also
Ray Ipsow's response, top of 32, followed by Vibe's description of
capitalist enterprise as a kind of hobby). Whereas Vibe makes an effort at
'a kind of' small-talk, his associate strikes a more threatening note: each
in his own way asks after Vanderjuice's well-being, but there is a
threatening subtext that began in the restaurant. Vibe's reference to
Walker's mother stands in contrast to the old woman's reference, above, to
Vibe's own mother.
If Vanderjuice's hat here serves as a significant prop, earlier it was his
"old-fashioned railroad watch" (30). The watch signalled his hasty
departure; Walker on the other hand is introduced as a man who seems to have
a lot of time at his disposal. We meet him "whittling an image of a
locomotive from a piece of firewood" (31). Given that they have yet to be
formally introduced, we can infer that the opening description ("a large and
criminal-looking individual") is taken from Vanderjuice's pov.
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