Atdtda [4]: Undeclared and largely imperceptible, 121-125

[Paul Nightingale]

Part 2 begins with an overview of international relations in the Age of
Imperialism, "an international race to measure and map most accurately ..."
etc: "In small, remote corners of the planet nobody was paying much
attention to ... the undeclared and largely imperceptible war had been
underway for years" (122). One might even see reference to the Cold War (a
'stage' beyond that described by Lenin) in "the parallel Organisation at St
Petersburg, ... notorious for promoting wherever in the world they chose a
program of mischief" (123).

The writing has a twofold purpose. Firstly, there is a reference back to
"the Era of Sail" (121), what in the previous section Randolph has termed
"the old days" (115); and then there is the reference to "the gold and
silver seekers of earlier days" (121), an attempt to provide analogy in the
form of "a 'Ray-Rush'" and "the next untamed frontier, pioneers arriving in
airships instead of wagons". This passage, then, is a discussion of
representation, the ways in which we write the new, what might be considered
the 'unwriteable' precisely because it is unprecedented (eg "undeclared and
largely imperceptible"). Writing, we can only go 'forward' by going 'back',
perhaps taking refuge in nostalgia for "a nice easygoing Indian attack"
(122). Padzhitnoff makes the point well with his story of the creature
without a name (124), one that is unclassifiable. And then, in the final
line of the section: "the incomprehensible" (125).