Atdtda26: Dally,s jasper, 746-747

[Paul Nightingale]

Another parting, here Kit and Dally. In contrast to the brothers' separation
up the page, nothing here is spoken, Kit and Dally continuing to exist in
their thoughts (as in 52.12, 744-746). Hence, "... the lights through the
fog apt to slide off into spectral effects" is followed by "Dally kept
disappearing": all of which continues where the previous section left off,
with Reef "soon absorbed into a mobility of hundreds ..." etc. Cf. the
opening of 52.10, Kit and Reef "trying to be part of the imprimatura" (741).
Yet, rather than faceless anonymity, the generalisation of the previous
section's "statistical way" (746), the current section dwells on the
particular: "... each vessel a waterbourne stage for high-intensity
theatricals ..." etc. There is action described in some detail, with Kit and
Dally motionless, perceived but hardly described. Cut from Kit to Dally, for
whom Kit is "this jasper" (747), someone she hardly knows.

For Dally, the future is there to be challenged: "... as if she could see
the entire darkened reach of what lay ahead". Top of 746, Kit has reduced
all to "simple preservation"; subsequently, having adopted Dally's pov, the
narrative describes a "somber fate he seemed so sure of" (747), her take on
his perspective and one she wishes/would like to "renounce". The passage,
and the chapter ends, with "those stepping off the night precipice of this
journey" replaced by "those who would be here, exactly here day after
tomorrow".