Atdtda24: Tng-tng tong, 678-683

[Paul Nightingale]

The new chapter opens with N&N comic relief. Lew is present, but silent.
Once at the theatre, he "[takes] out a pair of opera-glasses, and beg[ins]
scanning the crowd" (679). At the outset, Lew's attendance had seemed
unplanned: "Do come along Lewis ..." etc (678). Here, the narrative's
distance from Lew leaves the reader unsure if he has happened upon Renfrew
and Max Khautsch by accident: there are no thoughts to go on, no reaction is
recorded by the text. Indeed, the "great crash of cymbals" (679) seems
designed to pre-empt any such signifier ("Lew had little time to dwell on
the past").

A description of the play is accompanied by the two Ns' commentary, one that
makes Lew invisible. Subsequently, we are offered Khautsch's reaction to
Lew; or rather his "professionally weary" non-reaction (680). Lew is only
allowed to speak in response to Khautsch's question. Only then does his
error in taking Werfner for Renfrew becomes apparent: on the previous page,
his identification of both Renfrew/Werfner and Khautsch was filtered through
a description of their features transformed (679). Separating these two
moments is the Ns' discussion of "an actor playing an actor playing Jack"
(680). Now seen in close-up Werfner can be distinguished from Renfrew,
"maybe a little more informally turned out ..." etc.

The shift from a distanced perspective to one more microscopically intimate:
a feature of AtD as a whole, and here part of Khautsch's big-picture
connection of Whitechapel and Mayerling (681). By way of explanation,
Khautsch says he used to "fanc[y] himself a detective": the detective is one
to seeks such an overview, and here it requires a conspiracy theory.
Khautsch's revisionist account is reminiscent of the Cohen's version of the
Victorian Age, "a lateral world, set only infinitesimally to the side of the
one we think we know ..." etc (230-231): that scene also features a
discussion of the Renfrew/Werfner relationship with Lew as audience.
Subsequently, Werfner offers his own story, an account of FF's
"shadow-state" (683), to which "Lew listen[s] guardedly": by the end of the
section, the narrative has become focused on his thoughts, "[t]he mystery of
why Werfner should be in town at all".

Such thoughts "drive Lew back to his pernicious habit of
Cyclomite-nibbling"; he will have to indulge himself "surreptitiously", ie
alone. Hence Werfner is left behind. The group has indeed fragmented, as
though by an explosion of sorts: the Ns "drift[ing] off, mindless as
sailors" (682), followed by Khautsch "disappear[ing] into his own labyrinth
of desire".