Atdtda [4]: Ordinary and extraordinary, 113-118

[Paul Nightingale]

Forward momentum is provided by "orders [that arrive] with the usual lack of
ceremony, or even common courtesy ..." etc. Reminiscent of Pinter's The Dumb
Waiter? And then, Lindsay's "agonised scream ... followed by a half minute
of uncharacteristic profanity". Well, if Lindsay is slipping,
extraordinarily, from his customary standards, anything can happen. Darby,
however, has returned to "sneer[ing]" and "scoff[ing]" (116), so his
behaviour is indeed what we have come to expect.

This is the response of the Chums to the pearl and Iceland spar: "Ordinary
light, passing through this mineral, was divided into two separate rays,
termed 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary' ..." etc (114). All of which is the
work of "the fiendishly clever Oriental mind" and "ingenious Nipponese": the
text-as-pastiche plays with a racial stereotype that would appeal to the
Chums and their narrator. To emphasise the point there is "our little crew"
(115) and reference to a Chums novel, "for some reason one of the less
appealing of this series" (117). The narrator's plug for another of his
novels is reinforced by references to "ancient tradition" (114) and, from
Randolph, "the old days" (115). Miles, "[p]eering ... through a night-glass,
... transfixed by the sight of a woman ..." etc (117), recalls the sighting
of Merle and Chevrolette (13).

By definition, the omniscient narrator depends on, and confirms, hierarchy.
There is a relationship, then, between this narrative and the section's
attempt to reconfirm hierarchical relations among the Chums. Lindsay insists
on status when he suggests they "implement heightened alert status" (116)
and refers to whatever "Rules of Engagement clearly state" (117). We have
frequently seen characters thinking back, trying to recollect an earlier
moment--Veikko's "memory of a memory" (84; and here the text seems to be
'recollecting' earlier Chums' passages, perhaps suppressing all thought of
what has happened in the current chapter.

The message sends the Inconvenience to "the north polar regions" (114): if
the novel opened with a journey from somewhere in the southern US to
Chicago, this first part concludes with a journey that, possibly, can be
described as "extraordinary", from one side of the world to the other. The
message also provides plot movement by instructing the Chums "to intercept
the schooner Etienne-Louis Malus": the journey to Chicago was ostensibly to
visit the Fair, and its real reason only became apparent subsequently. Here,
we are provided with a great deal more information than at the outset. One
difference of course is the way in which they will travel, "by way of the
Telluric Interior".

So this section, in closing the first part of the novel, reminds the reader
of the way it all began in order to invoke oppositions. Our reading of
ongoing relations between the Chums is undeniably influenced by the conflict
we have witnesses in recent sections, in particular the impotence of
Randolph and Lindsay as authority figures. Perhaps they have to 'start over'
and rebuild their status. So Lindsay invokes "Rules of Engagement", and
Randolph attempts to 'trump' that with "the Commander's discretion" (117):
there is a clash between different kinds of authority here, that of an
impersonal bureaucracy as opposed to personal authority in the form of the
judgement exercised by an individual. The same kind of clash has informed,
in earlier chapters, the juxtaposition of Scarsdale Vibe to Franz Ferdinand.