ATDTDA (11): Flat Frank, 296-304 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

Since his arrival Frank's presence in town has been marked by his alienation
from 'the crowd', be it "omens of violence, all directed at him" (282), or
"local citizenry" at E Disco & Sons (284), lunchers packed into Lupita's
(287) or Bob-fuelled chaos at the Cosmopolitan (292-295). Go back, again, to
the moment Reef arrived to take him from Golden (198): Frank is preparing
for an exam which he'll never get to take.

In a modern society the certification that derives from formal examination
is the means by which the individual is differentiated from others, ranked:
in AtD, both Frank and Kit are separated from the family by education. When
eventually he gives up on mine school, we're told Frank is "young and
unaware of how to proceed on anything but nerve" (273): that is, pretty
ignorant and, up to this point, little more than Reef's sidekick. One might
say that, as manual workers, there is projected a continuity through the
generations, rather than differentiation; children learn from their parents
(eg, 90) rather than the state. The "Confederate colt" that Reef and Frank
both refuse to 'inherit' after the burial (217) first appears on 88, when
we're told Webb has inherited it from his Uncle Fletcher. There is conflict
between Webb and Kit when the latter deviates from this path, even if the
emphasis is on his association with Vibeland (104-106). In the passages that
deal with Kit's 'seduction' (97-99) the importance of his interaction with
"slightly older kid engineering students" (98) is evident. However, we never
get to see Frank with other students; after Golden, we see him wandering
round Nochecita (201-206), and now, getting up to speed, wandering round
Telluride. From Wren, he has borrowed the guise of an anthropologist (280);
and throughout the emphasis is on his perceptions. Reef takes him from
'book-learning'; subsequently, the narrative will gather round his reading
of others (Stray, 201; Linnet, 204; and then various groups/individuals in
Chs23-24).