ATDTDA (20): Like having a stuffed sinus go away, 564-567

[Paul Nightingale]

Umeki takes over and provides a lengthy explanation of the weapon. The
weapon has linked Kit to Woevre, each man baffled by something they cannot
read. Umeki, by way of contrast, is quite effusive, rendering Kit both
silent and it seems superfluous. In this chapter the weapon has been linked
to mathematicians, and Umeki here follows the pattern established by Barry
Nebulay and Ganesh Rao (557-558). The mathematics in question excludes Kit:
he is in pursuit of Umeki on 557 and has no contribution to make to the
ongoing discussion, he is reminded of his exclusion from the Quaternionist
camp before Rao's lecture on 560, and now Umeki has taken over the weapon.
To emphasise the point, "the fatal number four" (564) again links the weapon
to her school of mathematics: "Perhaps how I got drawn to the Quaternions."

Finally, "pretending to plug his ears" (566), he silences her, the lecture
finishes abruptly, and the narrative turns to a dream in which he is
confronted by her departure: "This dream was about Umeki, but also one of
those mathematicians' dreams ..." etc , here invoking "an itinerary, a map
to a hidden place". Linking "Vector and Quaternion equations", the dream
seems to attempt unity, perhaps intended as wishfulfilment on Kit's behalf.

Since leaving the US Kit has been wandering pretty well aimlessly; he has
undergone a series of transformations that challenge any sense of self he
might have started with. In this chapter his desire for Umeki has been
frustrated. Yet now: "He woke knowing for the first time in a long time what
he had to do." Hence, his own weapon-induced introspection is interrupted
when Umeki appears alongside to replicate dream unity, "humming a tune of
her own, and bit[ting] his nipple".