ATDTDA (21): Public hygiene, 584-585

[Paul Nightingale]

Hunter again leads Dally, this time to Andrea Tancredi, who opens the
narrative out by introducing modernist aesthetics, throwing in a political
manifesto for good measure: "The new religion will be public hygiene ..."
etc (585). Reference to Divisionism (584) perhaps recalls Hunter's
"labyrinthine principle" (575), but Tancredi speaks on behalf of a
'movement'. The Americans who "seemed greatly to annoy him" (584) are
perhaps richer versions of the gnat-like tourist hordes that Dally herself
despises. So we can perhaps see Tancredi as a potential rival to Hunter.
Here, "Dally [finds] herself looking at [him] more than she could account
for ..." etc (584-585), which sanctions the ensuing description of a new
Venice. Hunter, marginalised, attempts to "[slide] quietly between them"
(585).

Subsequently, Hunter's explanation of how he "happen[ed] one day upon these
visions of Tancredi's ..." returns the narrative to his own circumstances:
and if he is indeed a time-traveller (577), then this is an account of
something that has already happened, of course. Tancredi, by way of
contrast, has offered a rather more speculative version of 'the future', one
that anticipates: "Someday we'll tear the place down ..." etc (585).