Atdtda28: Society and syntax, 779-780

[Paul Nightingale]

If indeed 55.1 can be considered opaque, 55.2 begins with the precision of a
date: without, at this time, reading further ahead, we might be able to make
sense of the "heavenwide blast". An enlightenment (cap E?) of sorts. The
first paragraph begins with Padzhitnoff ("working ... as a contract
employee") before making it clear that the reference includes his crew as
well; and then we return to Padzhitnoff's plans for the masonry (such
references always invoking Ch1's "lavatorial assaults" on 5; and further
down the page on 779 we do come to Heaven's mandate). Subsequently, we might
suppose that "the cringers and climbers at all levels of Razvedka" are
described from Padzhitnoff's pov, all of which serves as a reminder that, in
the spy game, there are footsoldiers and bloody bureaucrats. The previous
chapter ended with faceless men in Whitehall and (the possibility of) good
money (not in fact confirmed by Prance, although his "laughter ... seemed to
go on for an unnaturally long time", 778); here, Padzhitnoff (and crew) are
being paid "at the exorbitant end of spy-budget outlays" (779), even if
"their spiritual ease" has been left unsatisfied.

The first paragraph contains a lengthy, somewhat unruly, not always
grammatically sound, sentence, one that draws attention to itself (as indeed
did the heavenwide blast), clause following clause, connections being made,
however 'clumsily', ie arbitrarily, something akin to a jump-cut, perhaps?
Or, as with "stumbl[ing] blindly" (780), the loss of (another kind of)
order? The opening ("Accordingly the great ship ...", 779) links together
"captain and crew" as one, denying any other possible meaning to the
captain's name. The collective weight gain runs into the masonry bombs, and
the need for ballast sees the crew identified in its entirety with the
airship, hence "weight control" is part and parcel of aeronautics and a nod
in the direction of scientific management. The loss of individuality here
leads to the new paragraph's reference to "cringers and climbers" etc, God's
abandonment of Russia perhaps a view shared by Padzhitnoff (and crew),
perhaps not. Heaven's mandate, moreover, means a loss of certainty:
reference to "any peasant's struggle with the day" (top of 780) invokes a
social order in stark contrast to the rational organisation that,
supposedly, characterises bureaucracy (ie 'closed' rather than 'open', the
latter featuring "nouveau riche fur traders", 779). Moreover, if we accept
that Padzhitnoff & co stand in for the Chums, then we might recall the way
the opening chapters established the Chums in terms of hierarchy and
bureaucracy).