ATDTDA (13): Trying hard not to primal scream, 364-366

[Paul Nightingale]

The second part of the section deals with Reef "[riding] out into the advent
of winter" (364). A man and his horse, and a few anonymous "fellow troopers
in the forces of those who would not descend to valleys ." etc. There is a
marked contrast between the writing hereafter and what has gone before, the
intensity of the Reef-Stray relationship. The section ends with Reef's "born
again" experience, given that anyone watching would conclude he was "now
dead and gone" (366). The section opened with the observation that "[t]he
San Juan range was a battleground now" (362); and "Reef's dead . make a
grand opera of coming round to remind him". A lot of 'noise', then; the ride
out, on the other hand, is marked by silence, until that is the explosion
and "the soul-smiting roar . grown to fill the day" (365). And then: "Later
he would wonder why he didn't head downhill quick as he could ." etc. The
narrative fast-forwards to a time when, safe from whatever threatens him at
this time, he can look back and impose order/meaning retrospectively:
"Somehow he must have wanted to have a last look."

Also retrospective is the analysis: "Afterward he calculated that what saved
him was the weather, unusually mild that week, almost like spring ." etc. If
the 'unnatural' blasting has produced the avalanche, the 'unseasonal'
climate has produced the solution: Reef has been saved, perhaps, by the
failure of human intervention. Cf. his claim following the scene with
Burgess: "This is too precious to leave it to some office full of clowns."
(363) And then note the way his escape depends on his being able to outwit
anyone watching ("fooled into thinking they'd got him", 365). Projection.

At the start of the section Reef is helpless: the impasse reached in his
relationship is followed by the "grand opera" performed by the (dead)
witnesses to class war. And then with one bound he was free: "With no way of
knowing how deep the snow was ." etc (365-366). The horse, at least, is "not
that amazed to see him" (366). The agency denied him thus far is
demonstrated here, eg "with some dim thought of steering", and the
improvised braking ("he guessed he might be going a little too fast ." etc,
all of which emphasises personal ingenuity as opposed to helplessness.
Remounting, he "resume[s] [his journey", inaccurate if it means 'take up
where he left off'; and even though he 'returns' he isn't 'going back'.