ATDTDA (18): Even in that rare and wordless moment, 497-498

[Paul Nightingale]

In the previous section a shift in time and place was marked by feelings and
perceptions; London was regarded as oppressive, to be escaped from (even
into drug-taking in the East End). With autumn and the return to Cambridge,
it is changing fashions that are remarkable. Continuing one theme of the
previous section, the text notes that Cyprian has rejected his family's
religion.

The writing is similar, the production of a summary, or overview; only at
the end of the section, does dialogue indicate a specific interaction,
between Yashmeen and the unnamed blonde, one of Times 3 or another from the
same production line.

Previously, for Yashmeen, London meant "idiot-infested summer soirees"
(496). Back in Cambridge "Girton [is] increasingly tiresome" (498). However,
she is torn between studying Riemann's Zeta function and the attentions of a
blonde classmate "tiptoeing in after curfew": the maths is a welcome
distraction from people, sex a distraction from, or subversion of, rules.
Her interest in Riemann is one she shares with others (496); but in the text
there is little indication of an academic community, one that would support
intellectual inquiry. She considers, speculatively, Riemann's own return to
his problem, "revisit[ing], in some way relight[ing] the scene" (498). Hence
one hidden history juxtaposed to another, the clandestine sex that
interrupts her thoughts.