Atdtda25: Changing the course of, 712-715

[Paul Nightingale]

Returning to Vienna, Cyprian finds he cannot escape Theign with "many people
... eager to be remembered to him" (713). Evidently such people are speaking
to Cyprian himself; however, the narrative will soon confuse Cyprian's pov
with that of Theign. As we read, we are reminded (his "imperfect grasp of
the idiom", 712) of Theign's advice to avoid speaking in German; and Cyprian
rapidly becomes incapable of saying anything comprehensible, "though the
interrogators [are] able to recognise" what he is saying (713). The
narrative now shifts to an overview of his impressions of Vienna, one that
effectively silences him. Cyprian is "surprised to learn how well known
Theign [is] in this town ..." etc, at which point the narrative concentrates
on Theign absent-but-present in the form of his many acquaintances, "his own
praetorian apparatus". Mid-page, "[h]e recalled having run into Miskolci
..." refers to Cyprian, located in "the strangely crowded daytime corridors
of the Hotel Klomser"; but this personal experience is soon replaced by the
summative, eg "one of Miskolci's most valuable assets for Theign ..." etc.
Subsequently, Cyprian has disappeared altogether: "Theign could hear the
screaming ..." etc. Cf. the ending of the previous chapter, when Theign
dismisses "simple sodomitical rivalries" (709) for the fates of nations"
(710). On that occasion the personal was replaced by the impersonal,
Theign's "axial loads of History". As this chapter opens, the anonymous
interrogator echoes Theign with "the history of civilisation" (bottom of
712), followed by the mockery of "Mr Latewood" (top of 713).

Subsequently, as the narrative voice shifts from Cyprian to Theign, one
individual to another, it invokes history by passing from the now of
Cyprian's Vienna (eg "crowded ... corridors") to the then of Theign's Vienna
(eg "the outer districts", 714). Hence Dvindler's introduction (bottom of
713) leads to a retrospective account that has erased Cyprian altogether in
favour of Theign's discovery of electricity, "the force of the future"
(714). At the end of the section the narrative dwells on Theign's problems
with German in his relations with Yzhitza (715). On 710 Theign has sent a
note warning Cyprian to speak English; and on 713, in parenthesis,
intrusively so, the warning is extended to include "interviewing techniques"
and different interpretations of "mit Schlag"--given the possible allusion
to Freud on 712, the difference between manifest content and latent meaning.
Subsequently, Theign himself--subbing for Cyprian here--is bewildered by
Yzhitza addressing him in German (715); and so to "one or two rogue
historians" etc, Theign himself "nod[ding] impassively.