Atdtda28: Local look, 783-784

[Paul Nightingale]

Thus far Ch55 has featured reactions to the Event, how to describe/represent
it. Here, we join Kit and Prance mid-scene, their exchange revealing a
series of events--Prance being shot at, repeatedly--of which we know nothing
. Kit asks Prance to judge, ie represent different experiences of being shot
at: "Was it as much fun as last time ..." etc; as with the Event, then, what
we know is the result of readings offered in the text. It transpires that
Prance resembles, to some, a Japanese spy, due to a misreading of
"[s]cholarly curiosity". Prance, meanwhile, has his own stereotyped image of
the Japanese, one that allows him to distance himself. Adopting a relativist
outlook, Kit mockingly suggests Prance will become Japanese if others think
it. Prance, then, will be denied any say in the matter; and thus silenced he
is associated, somehow, with the Event, each being said to originate in
Japan.

In the final paragraph, over the page on 784, the narrative adopts Kit's
pov. The section opens by inserting the reader into an exchange taking place
between Kit and Prance; here, the reader is distanced from Prance to gain
access to Kit's thoughts. Previously, Kit had mocked Prance's concern at
being shot at; here, "with deep anxiety" he has returned to Ostend and the
Q-weapon. Having joked that Prance might be held responsible for the Event,
he now considers the possibility that he himself is, somehow, responsible.
Cf. the "connected set" on 782.