ATDTDA (5): Another we, 144-146

[Paul Nightingale]

Back at the ship, "[s]towing the object in the hold was cursed from the
beginning". What was previously described as "the Figure" (141) is now "what
we had recovered", "the object", even "the thing": no capitalisation. By the
end of this first paragraph, however, "it" has fixed "its gaze" on its
captors. Unable as yet to "appreciate the range of its emotions", FV notes
"its 'eyes' set closely side by side like those of humans and other
binocular predators". Any dispute regarding "its 'facial' features", then,
has been superseded by the view that the set of its eyes means it must be
predatory: another reference to Lombroso? Once more, "scientific
objectivity" (138) imposes meaning; but not for the first time "rational
inquiry ("we measured, and remeasured, and each time the dimensions kept
coming out different", 144) is inadequate to the task. Ultimately, FV
acknowledges "how imperfectly contained the object really was" (145). An
"unbounded part had been neither detected nor measured".

That final acknowledgement is possible once the ship has docked, "invisible
among all these impersonal momenta of the Commercial" (144). Science has
given away to commerce: one earlier reference ("Vibes will sell it, whatever
it is ...", 142)  since the announcement that SV had been "effectively
bankrolling the Expedition" (130). The "delegation from the Museum, ... by
whom we were ignored, nearly unsensed" (145) evidently operates on a
different level.

In the pages of the Journal, FV has been an observer desperately maintaining
his belief, against evidence, in "scientific objectivity" (139). As a
narrator he includes himself in the "we" whose actions are described;
however, so far as the reader can tell, he makes no contribution to the
action and doesn't speak. Earlier, the text noted his brief, "to observe and
write down instances of money recklessly spent, enabling the elder Vibe
someday to exact an appropriate revenge" (130). Perhaps the picnic (138) is
an example of "money recklessly spent". Either way, for the most part, FV's
Journal projects a more 'serious' self-image, one that is steadily
undermined by events.

The chapter ends with "the streets ... in mad disorder" (145). Yet there is
order in chaos, the order of commerce: "Street-vendors, the only ones to
show any composure at all ..." etc. And: "Newsboys ran to-and-fro ..." etc
(146). Throughout, FV has kept the ship's crew at bay and sought to identify
himself with the learned members of the expedition; he ends the section by
"join[ing] a mass of citizens", another "we", one that is managed by
"[n]on-uniformed monitors, street toughs in soiled work-clothes".