ATDTDA (18): Back of the stacks, 510-511

[Paul Nightingale]

Kit, it seems, prefers the company of students in fourth class. The ship
reproduces class divisions in society: Kit has ready mobility because he
'belongs' in "palatial accommodation" (511). At the end of the previous
section, according to Erlys' account, he is (constructed as) a solitary
figure in the first class dining salon, just as he was alone at the party
(349). Here, he can take his place among "[a] whole collection of .
students" (510). We are introduced to Root, with whom Kit spends his time
when he isn't looking at Dally: if indeed he does remember her from the
party, is he thinking of her, or of his situation at that time? Is such
reminiscing separable? By the end of the section class differences have been
replaced by "language differences" (511), ie different approaches to maths.