ATDTDA (11): Transcendent world, 318-320

[Paul Nightingale]

The new chapter begins with Kit at Yale echoing (some of) the concerns of
Frank at Telluride. His prayer ("[f]irst thing up in the morning, last thing
before climbing into bed at night") is repetitive, of course, and part of
his daily routine. Yale, surprisingly, has little if anything to do with
"studying and learning, much less finding a transcendent world in
imaginaries or vectors; rather, it functions as a finishing-school for young
gentlemen: the ironic use of "factory" here suggests the kind of industrial
production that a gentlemen might shy away from.

Learning and the transmission of knowledge happen "not because of so much as
in spite of Yale". Yale Men are "no scholars except inadvertently":
pessimistic and also deterministic, the language of social and cultural
reproduction. Kit is idealistic here, invoking the international community
of scholars, "a silent connection". Cf. the rather noisy connection(s),
based on manual labour and commerce, that Frank witnessed earlier.

Kit is just as much an outsider as his brother, not least because of his
refusal to join clubs. The narrative, adopting Kit's pov here, turns him
into the kind of anthropological observer that Frank had been, eg: "He began
to keep an eye out for this peculiar traffic ." etc (319). Why "peculiar"
when this is the norm? It signifies Kit's own alienation, the imposition of
his own value system. Cf. Frank's impressions of Telluride on arrival, eg
the "soulless incandescence he felt rushed in upon ." etc (282). In the
Frank chapters there is nothing that does compare to that "peculiar".

Anyway, it's also interesting to see the clash of disciplines here: the
mathematician deals with hard reality, supposedly, whereas the social
scientist will read the nuances of group interaction. Or: is that what the
mathematician is doing also? Kit fully embraces the "metaphysical promise"
that Gibbs has outlined in class; yet he "[finds] himself with contradictory
allegiances ." etc.

Vibe is contemptuous of "these airy-fairy scratch-marks" because they
signify the break with "this soiled Creation"; he rejects explication,
"leaving a glowing trail of offended righteousness" (320), as though Kit has
tried to infect him with something nasty. They have different ways of seeing
the real world, summed up by their use of the same word. Kit: "It's nothing
too spiritual." Vibe: "I am as spiritual a person as any you are liable to
run into ." etc.