AtDDtA1: Meeting Chums, 3-20

[Paul Nightingale]

We're often told Pynchon doesn't do characters; nonetheless he has
successfully introduced, and differentiated, the various Chums. It's worth
saying again that characters are not 'stand-ins' for real people but
elements in the text; so if Randolph can be described as aloof, a somewhat
paternalist figure, one must consider the narrative function of aloofness
and paternalism. If Randolph is happy for Lindsay to play hard man in order
that he, Randolph, can remain above the fray, we should focus on those
moments when his strategy is less successful.

There is his gentle admonishment of Lindsay, soon followed by his equally
gentle "reproof" of Miles (4). And note also that Lindsay's "impatience with
all manifestations of the slack" doesn't extend to Randolph himself: "sure"
is surely one of the "informalit[ies] of speech" Lindsay has just been
raging against.

Later, when preparing to leave the airship, Randolph is caught in a
bantering exchange with Darby, one that includes "manly admiration" (16).
Hierarchy is briefly suspended by a shared masculine outlook, which means
another kind of ranking is introduced. One might infer that Darby sees
Randolph as a role model, less as leader/figure of authority than as a man
pursuing women. (Of course, one might also see sublimated homosexual desire
in this--subsequently, on 18, Darby shares a chaste kiss with Penny Black,
an alternative authority figure.)

Consequently, one might consider Randolph's character in terms of his
positioning, the extent to which his detachment is threatened. This includes
the scene with Miles and Darby (11-12); it also includes the final exchange
in Ch1 with Chick, who exposes the fiction involved in the way travel is
represented (9). A few pages earlier his authority--the power to give
orders--had derived from "studying an aeronautical chart of the country
below them" (6).

Chick is introduced (bottom of 4) as "young", an epithet repeated a few
lines later (top of 5). And then, a few lines after that he becomes "the
picklesome youth". Perhaps Pynchon could have used a decent editor here?
Then again, one might suppose the repetition, far from being redundant, does
serve a purpose. To establish his own superiority, Miles has just labelled
Chick in terms of "his unhealthy past"; so perhaps the repetition
corresponds to Miles' pov.

Miles "politely" reminds Chick of the rules, thereby aligning himself with
Lindsay, and even Randolph. Hence, the Miles-Chick coupling here replicates
the Lindsay-Darby coupling earlier: characters have been juxtaposed to
establish different kinds of authority and power relations, Lindsay as
second-in-command, Miles as 'better' (ie more experienced/knowledgeable)
than the newbie (in spite of his clumsiness). This distinction between two
pairs of characters will be reaffirmed when the airship has landed and
Darby/Chick stay, while Lindsay/Miles go to the fair. Incidentally, when the
airship does descend Miles is described, ostensibly from Lindsay's pov, as
"young Blundell" (11); and Lindsay's manhandling of Miles here recalls his
treatment of Darby when the airship took off.