ATDTDA (3): Secret imperative, 75-80

[Paul Nightingale]

The Merle/Dally chapter, "after a long spell of drifting job to job",
finally "roll[s] to a stop in San Miguel County" (80). The final section
begins (75-76) with a magazine story on Erlys, realising the thoughts Dally
had been having earlier (74); then, having introduced Webb (76), the
narrative ends on a retrospective note, Merle deciding his progress must be
"a secret imperative" rather than "the result of any idle drift" (80). As
narrating self, then, he imposes meaning with hindsight.

Throughout, this chapter has depended on the relationship between its
protagonists, Merle/Dally, and the setting. They are drifters and, reading,
one might ask where the narrative thread is going: has what had gone before,
the Chums, Chicago, Lew, etc, been a kind of prologue for this somewhat more
'personal' drama? To recall the old axiom, the personal is political: and
perhaps the "secret imperative" has been to bring to the fore the political
issues raised by Webb. This kind of narrative relay has happened already, of
course: the Chums hand over to Professor Vanderjuice, who introduces
Scarsdale Vibe. The relationship between Merle and technological change in
this chapter is a reminder that Vibe is still there, still "meet[ing] and
transact[ing] business without necessarily being observed" (31).

So the previous section featured "a sudden huge demand ... for electric
bells," etc (72-73). This section includes developments in photography (75).
The lengthy exchange between Merle and Webb (76-79) is produced by the
convergence of photography and mining brought about by chemistry. Webb
claims he was drawn by the smell of nitro (76): his reading of the smell is
at odds with Merle's, of course, leading to a description of "the infernal
side of the story" (78).

Merle has filled the "overgrown shed" with "photographer's or, if you like,
alchemist's stuff" (76); and then, later, he points out that "modern
chemistry only starts coming in to replace alchemy around the same time
capitalism really gets going" (79). Evidently, "modern chemistry" provides
the multiple purposes of, eg, "the nitro family" that will bring together
the likes of Merle and Webb, leading to "the Anti-Stone" and "politics
through chemistry". Webb replies to Merle by juxtaposing "the old magic" to
capitalism's newer version, one that produces surplus value.