ATDTDA (21): Not so much a painting, 595-597

[Paul Nightingale]

The maths war is replaced by class war with news from St Petersburg and
Moscow etc. The writing ("thousands of unarmed strikers who had marched
there in respectfulness and innocence") indicates a loss of innocence,
perhaps, a loss of faith. Cf. Tancredi's modernist manifesto: "... not so
much a painting as a dialectical argument" (586).

There is a marked difference in the responses of Kit and Yashmeen to the
sudden appearance of Russians at Gottingen. Yashmeen says her "true
memories" only begin with Major Halfcourt in the market, or more accurately
"the moment he first saw me" (596). Hence her second father brought her into
being, in a way that prefigures Kit's own introduction to her in the
beer-hall (588-589). One might also recall that Scarsdale Vibe features as a
rival father-figure, taking Kit from Webb (eg "... either my boy or theirs,
can't be both", 105).

Eventually, Kit is succeeded by Gunther, with Yashmeen undeterred by his
devotion to statistics. Gunther is introduced as "a wealthy coffee scion"
(596), ie locked into the patriarchal family structure that has abandoned
both Kit and Yashmeen herself (or, put another way, a system from which they
are excluded).