Atdtda23: Reluctant, 661-662

[Paul Nightingale]

Ch46 ends with Reef accused/accusing himself of betraying his father/family;
the new chapter opens with an attempt to honour the memory of another father
figure, Riemann. On 498 Yashmeen sketches in the reasons for her move to
Gottingen, a quest of sorts as well as escape from Cambridge, all of which
reminds us that her departure was shaded by ambivalence. Kit is still in
attendance, reacting to her every move (and more successful than Cyprian on,
eg, 504), "though he'd rather've been staring into the sun".

Making the same journey as Riemann is an attempt to repeat his steps,
effectively stand in for the great man, or even somehow 'undo' his death (in
part the function of any such memorial gesture). If "Riemann knew he was
dying", and therefore not trying to avoid death in the form of war, Yashmeen
and Kit find themselves mired in "the revenge of Deep Germany on the modern
age of steam" (662). Cf. Frank's approach to the electrified Telluride on
281. Or Lew's journey with the Ns to Galveston (187). The railway signifies
modernity, and at the start of the previous chapter the tunnel that will
facilitate rail travel brings war closer (652); in so doing it confronts
'the past' it must conquer. Moreover, modernity is inseparable from
consumerism, of course: the restaurant attached to "the largest railway
station in Germany" (662) recalls the opening of Ch45, "another of these
damned ladies' gathering spots, just off the lobby of a reputable hotel near
the Union Depot" (644).