AtD, p. 856-857 "pretend to be fascinated"

[Mark Kohut]

Like the abacus metaphor. though I probably don't understand it. Pynchonia, I'd say.
   
  Yes, I think this section is huge in AtD.......Austria herein, from at least the Vienna section where spying as a 20th Century motif was introduced, and all of the changes on concealment, spying, betrayal, otherwise abandoning one's integrity have been presented, and with more Austrian allusions than we can remember--did they start with Ferdinand?--- it seems TRP's literal savaging of that nation and metaphoric use of archetypal themes relating to Austria is part of TRPs "philosophy of modern history"--which leads to war, death and destruction................culminating in GR so unforgettably....

Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
  also, this whole episode seems to be fairly huge in AtD...

Austrian takeover, not just of, umm where are we again...
some city...
but also, it seems, there's been an Austrian takeover
of the Theign branch of Naval Intelligence,
with Theign acting on their behalf, rather than within his remit
in HM's Royal Foreign Service, nicht wahr?

Double-agenting. As Cyp noticed when Moistleigh mentioned
translating copies of his decodings into German...

British Empire's functionaries abroad
losing their grip (Halfcourt), opting out to become balloon-boys (Prance),
going over to the Other Side (Theign)...

upcoming Uskok revenge on Theign also huge...

reading this book is like working an abacus, maybe,
beads of action, depiction, characterization,
add up in one column, and then at some point you move a bead in
the "symbolic structure" column


       
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