ATDTDA 701

[Michael Bailey]

701 - "your Newmarket period"
gazing at mapquest map of England, just to get a feel for it.
Big horse-racing town since the 12th century, Newmarket
isn't very far from Cambridge (as a non-Brit, the fact that
Oxford is a bit northwest of London while Cambridge is
a bit northeast is interesting to me) which is where
Cyprian 'n' them were all going, right?

(hey, did Cyps graduate?  p713 refers to a "little-go"
which apparently is a test of some kind...

http://www.factmonster.com/dictionary/brewers/little-go.html
"The examination held in the Cambridge University
in the second year of residence.
Called also "the previous examination," because it
precedes by a year the examination for a degree.
In Oxford the corresponding examination is called The Smalls. ")


- Ratty's "Newmarket period" was in the company of
(and possibly sponsored by) Renfrew, as we recall from p495.
Instantiation of the mentorship principle
(bemoaned by Kit, practiced by Vibe and all the Elis at Yale,
mentioned in Vineland ("closed ideological
minds passing on the Christian Capitalist faith intact,
mentor to protege" p247) by Rex...) -- Renfrew seeing talent
in the "louche" Ratty and by his attentions turning him
into a "swot" as well as a spy.

...a principle which also functions between Cyprian/the Colonel
and Cyprian/Theign; also, between Webb/Gatlin and
is something Webb imagines he can induce in Deuce

701 - "I'll wager I could seduce any of that manly brigade"
Cyprian is a confident sodomite; a quite accomplished one, in fact.
I'm charmed by him (though, like Mr Jellyneck in _Strangers
With Candy_, I'm of course a very manly man...in fact,
I need to call my wife right now...)

701 - "perhaps less at Trinity than at King's"
both Trinity and King's are colleges at Cambridge.
Wikipedia states:
"In general, the atmosphere at King's is considered to be
a little easier than that of other colleges to integrate into
if you come from a working class or minority background."

side question of whether the implication is that Cyprian
was at King's, which does seem to be the shading here...

- and why then would Cyprian mention Trinity,
a more exclusive, aristocratic place (which he,
as "new money" wouldn't qualify for)
unless to nod to it as Ratty's alma mater?

so maybe I was wrong a couple posts ago
about Ratty being a scholarship student and
so forth...(so, reinterpreting "Whitehall or
Blackpool", maybe "gov't svc in keeping w/family trad,
or else permanent holiday"?)

This comparison ("less at Trinity than at King's")
is embedded in Cyprian's apologia, a very nice
set-piece which starts out subjunctive ("[Cyp] imagined
he could explain") but after it trails off, Ratty actually
responds, so he must have spoken it.

Just in such a manner does word of his fearful situation
with the Colonel get breathed also: "...nonetheless he
was tempted, almost sexually so, to tell all..." (p 700)
and then does!

so I think liminality (perhaps lupine) between thought/expression,
temptation/succumbing, boredom/expectation
is being explored here...
maybe a dimension of that "deliverance into light"


-- 
"...there are not only landmarks, but also anti-landmarks - for every
beacon, an episode of intentional blindness." (Professor Svegli, p248)