Atdtda28: The General is eager to know, 780

[Paul Nightingale]

A third section opening with a bald statement, here one relating to agency,
the individual's role and/or function. The agent-as-author. Gerasimoff
wishes to assert his identity, but what is his opinion worth? Not much,
apparently, as Padzhitnoff counters with another view, that of bureaucratic
superiors (and by the end of the section Gerasimoff's 'view' has been
countered by Pavel's). Gerasimoff thinks he can separate war and science;
the reader, who has, perhaps, imposed meaning on the "heavenwide blast" that
opens the chapter (779), might recall that the twentieth century has
demonstrated the falsity of that proposition in spectacular fashion (cf.
Padzhitnoff's reference to gunpowder down the page).

We are being introduced to the Bol'shaia Ingra's crew as they make sense of
the 'reality' that feeds 'history': cf. the Chums' introduction ahead of the
Chicago Fair. Gennady is sardonic, perhaps less abrasively so than Darby
Suckling; his emphasis on the real-estate possibilities down below
prioritises the logic of capitalist development. Where Gerasimoff wishes to
separate war and science, Gennady here confuses politics/bureaucracy and
private enterprise: another way of promoting the individual-as-agent/author,
of course. Thus far, the "heavenwide blast" has no author, or at least one
that can be identified: "The General is eager to know ..." etc. As the
section ends, the 'who' has become 'how to describe it': "I want all of you
to see something curious," etc. The exchange between Gerasimoff and Pavel is
succeeded by unattributed speech: Gerasimoff, or another?