ATDTDA (12): Foley's voice, 329-335 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

Out the window SV sees "a cityscape once fair but with the years grown more
and more infested with shortcomings". This is his somewhat jaundiced view of
the world. By this time the text makes it clear that FW is faking it; again
he refuses to commit himself (eg, ". in a tone as level as he could make
it"). At the start of the section the key question regarded Kit's fate; that
has been decided with a minimum of fuss, and another key question-the fate
of SV's relationship with FW-has replaced it. The text privileges FW's dream
(332-333), and then returns, with FW, to SV's diatribe (eg, "Scarsdale had
been saying", 333).

SV's speech describes the nature of the "cityscape" he sees outside his
window; Kit has climbed to this office beyond even the elevator, passing
"windows showing in stained glass notable incidents in the history of the
Vibe Corp" (329-330), but SV sees an anti-Vibe history that justifies
draconian measures by way of response. FW has "come to see little point
these days in speaking up" (333); what he sees is "a moated castle and
Scarsdale a ruler isolated in self-resonant fantasy". Hence his growing
desire to put distance between himself and Vibe: "His own voices, which had
never pretended to be other than they were, reminded Foley of his mission,
to restrain the alternate Foley, doing business as Scarsdale Vibe, from
escaping into the freedom of bloodletting unrestrained ." etc (334). By the
end of the section, then, SV has become an "alternate", one masquerading as
the figurehead of a corporation that owes much to the real FW.

Having distanced FW from SV the narrative offers a scene that dispenses with
the generalisations offered by SV, "one more item of city depravity except
for the longing". And then: "Foley had at least got that far, learned not to
disrespect another man's longing." (334) Cf. Lew at the anarchist meeting:
"But here was this hall full of Americans ." etc (50). In each case the
outsider can overcome prejudice to, if not empathise, then understand better
social diversity. On this occasion FW can accept SV's attitude to "[t] boy
Christopher" (334).

For FW this has been a key section, one tracking his growing importance:
when he first met Kit he patiently ("once again was obliged", 100) offers
the back-story that makes him, in his own words, "more Scarsdale Vibe than
Scarsdale Vibe himself" (102). When we see them together, again from Kit's
pov, FW's appearance is much more striking (156). Again, SV dominates that
particular scene, and juxtaposes Kit to his own son, Fax, whose ineptitude
has given rise to "the old capitalist's curse"; just as FW has subbed for
SV, so must Kit, the other conscript, sub for Fax. SV has insisted on useful
maths, just as earlier he tried to insist on Fax's useful corruptibility.

FW ends the section thinking of the "act of rescue" (334) that constructs an
alternate Vibean history: "But a voice, unlike the others that spoke to
Foley, had begun to speak and, once begun, persisted." (335)