ATDTDA (3) One interesting compound, 75-79

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

robinlandseadel wrote:
>
> Oops. . . . . . . .too late. I found our introduction to Webb Traverse
> one of the crucial passages in Against the Day

one of the many...

> Also of great interest are the exchanges between Merle and Webb,
> nearly in code and definitely fine examples of ritual reluctance.
>

...

> "In Colorado they found a farm outbuilding, forgotten years earlier
> after the farm went under and the farmhouse burned down, leaving
> this overgrown shed, which Merle managed to fill up to the rafters
> with photographer's or, if you like, alchemist's stuff---containers
> ranging from banged-up vegtable cans to jugs and bottles holding
> liquids or powders of different colors, to gigantic glazed crocks,
> fifty gallons and more, that you might be able to lift empty but wouldn't
> necessarily want to, carefully bent glass tubes and copper coils
> running everyplace, a small forge over in one corner, an electric
> generator hooked to an old bicycle, battery cells dry and wet,
> electromagnets, burners, an annealing oven, a workbench littered
> with lenses. . . ." AtD, 76

but my favorite part is "...and other stuff Merle had almost forgotten he had."  Somebody's probably mentioned Merle could easily be short for Merlin, haven't they?  In the legend, didn't Merlin spend time chilling in a cave?

then we get into a fine distinction: "silver fulminate, not quite the same thing as 'fulminating silver', which (which compound is the antecedent here? Grammatically either would work, but Wikipedia says of silver fulminate "It is a primary explosive that has very little practical value due to its extreme sensitivity. The impact of a single water droplet has been known to detonate several milligrams of silver fulminate. Even small amounts of this explosive can cause extensive shrapnel damage, and should be treated with extreme caution. Silver fulminate is often confused with fulminating silver, a decomposition product of Tollen's reagent. Fulminating silver does not contain the fulminate anion, although it is also an explosive compound.") 'll blow up if you touch it with a feather"

Skipping back a little, what do you make of this clause: "the extravagantly kept promises of island girls" (p71) in the "list of girls" paragraph (which I just noticed starts with an extended metaphor of the midwest as ocean (a conceit which surfaces again on page 75 "the necessary rhythms of a sea hidden far from any who would seek it", right after another crucial passage - "There's your gold, Dahlia, the real article." (74-5)) - were the promises made by the island girls, to the various observers, family members, dinner guests; or were the promises of (encountering) island girls along the way made to Merle (by some guide) as he set out on his lonely way?  Or is there a more concrete connection to or explication of the promises inside the paragraph that I'm missing?