Atdtda28: Not much, 779

[Paul Nightingale]

A brief statement that says both 'everything' and 'nothing'. Nothing escapes
the "heavenwide blast", but the sentence itself, taken in isolation, escapes
understanding beyond the most literal. The words have denotative power in
that they are self-referential; until we read on, however, we're none the
wiser. The previous chapter ended where it began, with "the perfect clarity"
(768), subsequently  "the purity, the fierce, shining purity" (778) of
Baikal; and there is a nod towards "what was nearly upon them". The current
chapter's opening sentence might send us back to the previous page, where
the fast-forward of the final sentence ("... as he would understand later")
looks to a point in time beyond the narrative present. Unless and until
there comes an edition that prints 55.1 on a page by itself, it must be
difficult to read the opening sentence without simultaneously glancing down
the page to the precision of the opening to 55.2, where the reader can begin
to "understand later".