AtDTDA: (13) The Chinese Gong Effect 354/355/356 pt 2

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

These are some of the pages where local temporal displacement 
sends us back into the Time Machine. Landing on: 

            "'Problem'? It should be an unhappy ending?" 
            Bria puzzled. "Like those bloody horror shows 
            they put on over there in Paris, France?" 354

Sends us forward to 

            "'Jour, Dally," called a pretty young woman in trousers.
            "'Jour, Jarri,"
            A group of Americans paused to stare.
            "Scyuzay mwah, but ain't you that La Jarretiere?" 1066

And yes she is "that La Jarretiere", sending us back to a scene in V. that, 
doubtless, the author wishes to make amends for [or at least suggest 
an alternate outcome (1)]. Sex, gender, lavishly described three-ways with 
a bit of something for everybody---Our Beloved Author's take on queer 
culture shifted big-time from V. to AtD. From a Grand Guigonal "Rite" 
stage managed by creepy faggots to Cyprian Latewood and a transcendent 
moment of musical bliss mirroring back to:

            Why fum’th in fight the gentiles spite, in fury raging stout?
            Why tak’th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about?
            The kings arise, the lords devise, in counsels met thereto
            against the Lord with false accord, against his Christ they go.

 . . . .the original hymn by Tallis.

---quite a distance to cover from V. to Against the Day.

Then we really are sent into the time machine, and the problems that go 
along with stage magic's mis-uses of these time machines.  Iceland Spar
seems to be the culprit:
            
            "Kind of a running problem here. . . .   

            . . . .it didn't all happen all at once, so there was 
            this short couple of seconds where time went on, 
            irreversible processes of one kind and another, 
            this sort of gap opened up a little, and that was 
            enough to make it impossible to get back to exactly 
            where we'd been." 355

. . . .very much like "The Prestige", as others have already noticed.

Then there's the Isle of Mirrors in that Lagoon over in Venice---maybe the 
Fangoso Lagoons?---"might be only the name of some holding company 
by now, but they still do produce and market the finest conjuror's mirrors 
in the world." Thinking of discontinuities in the stream of time, mirrors 
and Venice conjures up Hunter Penhallow. And then we flip the page 
and find out Dally and the Zombinis are headed out to Europe on the 
Stupendica, which is headed for rather weird and Bi-Located waters indeed.

In addition to being a reference to an actual bit of stage magic:

http://tinyurl.com/yvtyl7

. . . . that seems to refer back to the famous traveling "Blackstone" 
family of magicians, a name that sounds innately alchemical, all on its own.
Of course, looking up Harry Blackstone gives a lot of background on
stage magic during the turn of the century. . . .

There is also the notion of "kicking the gong around", that is to smoke
opium, something that happens quite a bit in this book. That act would both calm 
the nerves and provide a little entertainment behind the eyeballs, somewhere in 
the occipital lobe. After this, the re-united Mother and Daughter attempt to 
explain, make nice, get it out of their system in the few spare moments as they 
prepare to board the Stupendica. There's an intended palliative effect here, but 
of course Dally's is a rather deep and persistent pain . To a limited extent, this 
is an attempted reconcilation, an attempt to find a way to ease the pain.

But whatever the plans of Dally and Eryls:

            . . . .As if a valve in a distant part of the basement 
            had just been opened, the whole apartment was 
            suddenly turbulent with preparation for the journey. . . .

            . . . .And there Dally and Eryls would have to leave 
            things for a while. In fact, the chore level being what 
            it was, till they were on board the Stupendica and 
            well out to sea.

Chance favors certain characters more than others in this book:

            "As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their 
            ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks 
            are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they 
            manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that persue 
            them." 

1: In addition to the general low parody of queer culture found in "V. in Love", 
the fourteenth chapter of "V.", there is also a descriptive parody of the Succès 
de scandale of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps". In conterpoise, AtD 
offers up the premier performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams "Fantasia on 
a Theme by Thomas Tallis". During the performance, Ruperta Chirpingdon-
Groin levitates in a state of rapture [and if there's a 20th century piece of 
music where that could happen, it would have to be the 'Tallis Fantasia'] [2], 
"simply a tactful and stately ascent about halfway to the vaulting", and from 
the experience has some sort of spiritual conversion (896), which also 
involves noted time-traveler Hunter Penhallow, who is involved with Dally, 
who is going to tie the knot with Kit, who will split off from Dally on the 
Stupendica---there is a knotting right here, on these three pages, 
where a remarkable number of these plot threads bump up against each 
other.  See how this branches---and remember earlier, Merle's talk about 
silver nitrate and "branching" in the emulsion during the photographic process?

2: Though, if anyone ever thinks of a post-war GR they better use 
Richard Strauss' "Four Last Songs".