ATDTDA (12): Nothing quite like the rails, 336

[Paul Nightingale]

A short section, two paragraphs, Dally introspective. One sees, through her
eyes, other passengers, potentially predators. Men seducing "prairie wives
traveling to or from husbands whose names seldom got mentioned" might remind
her of her own family history. The reader might also think back to her
parting from Merle at the end of Ch24: "Along the platform Dally was getting
looks from those accomplished in the parental arts ." etc (317). She can
look after herself quite competently. Furthermore, that "Wild West poets"
(336) have such a devastating effect on "[b]admen out for mischief" might
recall the lament for a past age (eg Professor Vanderjuice, 53). The kind of
West represented by the "classic throwdown posture" attempted unsuccessfully
by Jimmy Drop (310) is no longer in evidence. And then, one might find
interest in the juxtaposition of said "[b]admen" to said unmentioned
husbands, their masculinity at risk.

Dally is reversing the westward narrative of, eg, Lew and Doc Turnstone; her
future isn't that of the disappearing frontier. In Chicago, "the
conglomeration of architectural styles" (336) represent the modernist dream.
In his office "Scarsdale [Vibe] gazed out his window at a cityscape once
fair but with the years grown more and more infested with shortcomings"
(332). Dally's view is a kind of reverse shot; she thinks of "that mixture
of all the world's peoples", some of whom, many perhaps, are now SV's
dangerous Anarchists. For each character urbanism offers anomie (and one
thinks of Fax warning Kit that he couldn't lose himself as easily as he
might suppose, 329). Dally "hop[es] for some glimpse of her White City"
(336): the "darkened daytime one" she in fact does see is in shadow,
ominously so.