ATDTDA (16): Something essential, 449-451

[Paul Nightingale]

Back to Merle, following Dally's departure at the end of Ch24: like
Clarabella, "all abandoned in the full light of day". And then: "Heading
east, he was aware that Dally was someplace a thousand miles in front of him
..." etc, a kind of 'pursuit'. Yet "something at the back of his mind
convinced that years ago on the way west to Colorado he had missed something
essential ..." etc indicates a desire to return to a point in time.
Following Erlys' departure he determines to "[stay] within the contours of
the chore of the moment" and concentrate on "life with young Dahlia" (69).

In Audacity, Iowa he discovers a role fixing the film projector, ie finding
a way to let the narrative proceed: "Guess I'd better wind this back again
to the beginning of the reel." (450)

The final passage in this section sees Merle "contemplating the strange
relation these moving pictures had with Time" (451). Each frame, of course,
is a still; projection is "fooling the eye", a process that involves
ignoring the differences between any two frames to see them as one. Another
way of putting it: ignoring the particular, what makes A and B distinct.
Back at the start of the section: "... convinced ... he had missed something
essential, some town he hadn't seen, some particular piece of hardware that
unless he found it again and put it to use, might even cross off a good part
of the meaning of his life so far, is how important it was" (449).