Atdtda25: Anything like a social life, 698-701

[Paul Nightingale]

And straightaway into Cyprian's backstory, relocating him a year ago in
Vienna. The narrative says his "descent into the secret world had begun"
then and there; however, one recalls the account of his adventures in Paris,
according to his father "a test of character" he failed (497). Hence,
Cambridge: we have already seen, a couple of pages back in 49.1, his return
to a "schoolboy script" that seemed to send him back in time, pre-Cambridge
and pre-Yashmeen. The current description of a "secret world" dating back no
more than a year is, therefore, in keeping with that earlier revisionist
account.

By the end of this section Cyprian can tell Ratty McHugh that "sodomy" at
Cambridge was a strategy, or at least began as one: "... if one wanted
anything like a social life, it was simply the mask one put on" (701). Cf.
the earlier "false utterings in a number of hands" the "schoolboy script"
has replaced (697).  However: "Who could have foreseen ... that the fiction
might prove after all more desirable ..." (701). This scene follows the
description of Cyprian's adventure with the Colonel; here, chained and
whipped, he cannot hide/disguise desire, "... his unfaltering erection would
in any case have made any protests unpersuasive" (700).

In Vienna Cyprian gets involved with "a pair of Russians" (698) recalling
the two Ns. Cf. Lew's post explosion meeting with the Ns on 185. The
exchange regarding work clearly distances them from the sailors Cyprian had
so recently been interested in: indeed, with no evident occupation they are
all outsiders here. As the Colonel is introduced his omniscience is
emphasised: surveillance is total, and there is no escape, his "resources
... allow him to learn everything people say" (699). Cf. the Cambridge
introduction of Ratty McHugh on 495, in particular Renfrew's "running
accumulation of dossiers ... on everyone who had ever crossed his path".