Atdtda23: No shortage of work, 652-656

[Paul Nightingale]

Ch46 opens with an overview of the situation Reef finds himself in.
International relations and the likelihood of war ("Austria still wanted to
be able to move massive forces south whenever it took a mind to") are
juxtaposed to the manual work ("gypsying from one European tunnel to the
next") that makes militarism possible. Such work is dependent on technology,
"the new Brandt drills, mounted on tripods like Hotchkiss machine guns"
(653): here, the relationship between work and warfare is made explicit,
particularly when the mountain is given "a passionate heart" and a desire to
fight back, to defend itself. Hence the "struggle some days to simply get
out alive by shift's end". Subsequently, the Tatzelwurm will also indication
the natural world's resistance to change (eg Gerhardt at the bottom of 655).

The generalised description of work gives way to an account of the
interactions between Reef and his co-workers, not least the story told by
Ramiz, which in turn inspires "a version of [Reef's] own story" (654). The
"long-standing blood vendetta"  that has defined Ramiz' life (653) invokes
tradition, a resistance to progress that takes the form of an "ancient
code". In spite of the comic relief offered by the "classic throwdown (310),
for Reef there is no comparable "Code of the West" (654): cf. Gunther's
attempt to make Kit fight a duel (599-600). And so to Philippe's view that
"[i]n Europe ... the mountains are much older than in America" (655), as
though history is a European, ie 'old world', concept.