ATDTDA (8): Some new presence inside him, 214-215

[Paul Nightingale]

Reef considers the possibility that, Webb having been
the Kieselguhr Kid, "somebody ought to carry on the
family business". Scarsdale Vibe bemoaned the fact
that his sons were incompetent (157); on that occasion
he claimed for himself "the aptitudes that matter
most". Here, Reef "set[s] off a stick or two" (214) to
demonstrate his own aptitude. Going back once more to
Reef's childhood, one is reminded that he "didn't say
much, but his eyes got a squint into them that when
you saw it, you learned to take care" (90).

Embracing the act, he hasn't any of the curiosity
demonstrated by Frank, a desire for knowledge: Reef
knows all he needs to know. The explosion of dynamite
is an end in itself; now, it confirms that Reef is his
father's son. It also purports to confirm that Webb
was the Kid, or could have been, so one can say the
son gives birth to the father, or better the
myth-of-the-father (an alternative to the
law-of-the-father, perhaps). He "be[gins] to feel some
new presence inside him" (214); and reading to Webb
("like a bedtime story") is also a paternal act.

Subsequently there is a brief flashback to Reef "in
the county lockup at Socorro" (215); he has apparently
broken the law, reminding us that, when he 
came to Jeshimon, he first off asked the Reverend
about "bylaws, legal peculiarities, anythin a newcomer
ought to know about" (210). Or: how a newcomer gets to
be not-a-newcomer. This was in 
response to the Reverend's opening reference to the
Governor: here, Reef demonstrates that he isn't an
inhabitant of Jeshimon (a state of mind as much as
anything). Reef is sensitive, as others it seems
aren't, to the all-seeing eye of the Governor; and
this is similar to the self-conscious attempt to
demonstrate--as though to Webb himself, turning back
the years--his dynamiting skills. The Governor is
deemed a satanic presence (212); and now Reef hears
"some faceless but unrelenting desert prophesiser who
was coming more and more to hide herd on his thoughts"
(214). Just as, previously, Webb has been juxtaposed
to Scarsdale Vibe, so is he here 
juxtaposed to the Governor.