ATDTDA (3): Colic-free sleep, 66-69 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

Erlys appears as a textual substitute ("exactly in this blessed lull ..."
etc, 67) for the twin concerns of the previous section, the Aether and
Blinky. Speaking to Dally "years later", Merle juxtaposes the Aether ("an
open question") to Erlys ("never no doubt", an interesting double negative).

Dally wonders if Erlys "made me have the colic" when Merle points out "the
first colic-free sleep of [her] young life" coincides with her mother's
departure. Note that, although Merle continues to complete questions he
'thinks' she might be about to ask, Dally here infers, playfully, a causal
relationship between two separate absences, "she's just up and gone" and
"first colic-free sleep". The previous section began with Merle "[getting]
the idea into his head that the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky
Morgan manhunt were connected" (61). When Roswell calls it "primitive
hoodoo" Merle rests his case on "press accounts", that is, evidence provided
by storytelling. Similarly, Dally finds herself in the role of audience and
'completing' the story her father tells, asserting a causal relationship to
provide (or at least move towards) closure. In each case the audience for
storytelling is not willing to passively accept, or settle for, just what
they are told.

The notion of storytelling is central to both VL and M&D; in the current
chapter, the Merle/Dally thread provides AtD's main contribution thus far to
that narrative form. And it seems that, in the telling, mid-67, Merle has
replaced Blinky as a target for the popular imagination: until Dally stops
him and asks to hear about "that Zombini bird ... again".

Merle has been unable "to use Professor Vanderjuice's letter of introduction
to Michelson" (66). The Professor "[doesn't] know the man personally" but
presumably thinks his name alone will do the business (59). The letter
stands in for its absent author and signifies networking in the scientific
community: however, it is devalued, even worthless, currency as soon as
Michelson has become "too famous to be giving itinerant technicals the time
of day" (66). The letter also signifies Merle's his relationship with the
Professor, and therefore his own past; having achieved fame of a sort as the
Beast Without Shame (67, recalling not only Blinky but Lew) he moves on and
becomes the protagonist of his own story.