ATDTDA (20): Walking back from the cafe, 560-561

[Paul Nightingale]

Sex with Umeki (559) is interrupted as the new section begins with reference
to Pleiade, Kit's distanced surveillance of her: Umeki in the foreground,
Pleiade in the background, and no mention here of a hat-fetish. His thoughts
are interrupted when they meet, Kit assuming that Piet Woevre tried to kill
him in the mayonnaise factory: desire for her, whether or not it still
exists, is replaced by another kind of stimulation, suspicion upon meeting
someone positioned as a rival. In the writing, however, it is Umeki's
jealousy that takes precedence; and she immediately reminds Kit and the
reader that, as mathematicians, they belong to rival camps. The lengthy
description of Hamilton's anniversary makes Kit, as a mere Vectorist,
redundant, swamped even by Ganesh Rao's lecture (no doubt preferable to
drowning in mayonnaise). Pleiade has been identified as Rao's female
companion ("Oh, she's that one"), even though she is seen here with Woevre:
within this brief section, that relationship takes precedence over Kit's
with Umeki.