Atdtda28: Accounts differed, 784-785

[Paul Nightingale]

A survey of consequences, the Event's aftermath. Aboard the Bol'shaia Igra
Padzhitnoff has considered "eyewitnesses living below" (781). Subsequently,
the narrative has joined Kit and Prance at ground level; but they remain
outsiders distanced from the local population. Here, the overview narrative
considers "crazed Raskol'niki", and then reindeer and "their ancient powers
of flight"; by implication it is now humans who are outsiders. The lengthy
opening paragraph provides mosquitoes and wolves with knowing agency, before
introducing "[o]ceangoing ships unmanned by visible crews". In the previous
section Kit-as-mathematician refers to the Quaternion alternative to "what
we think of as ordinary space" (783); here, the narrative, without
necessarily adopting Kit's pov, takes up the question of displacement, eg
Tierra del Fuego in Siberia, the ship that has run aground (784). In this
novel, since the publication of the blurb, a key question has concerned the
how of it all, how a post-realist writer would choose to represent the
'travel' that was highlighted at the outset. The current section--written
less as montage than as bricolage--indicates succinctly how the novel has
gone about answering such questions.

Such phenomena as are described are given as aspects of local folklore. The
mosquitoes "[are] observed congregating in large swarms at local taverns";
the wolves "[are] reported to be especially fond of Matthew 7:15"; and
"[e]ntire villages came to the conclusion that they were not where they
ought to be", evidently after some discussion. As with Prance being though
Japanese (783), the only reality is that which has been rendered
discursively, eg "reports of a figure walking through the aftermath" (785).
Hence, "... as the Event receded in memory, arguments arose as to whether
this or that had even happened at all". In the final sentence of this
section Kit and Prance reappear with "the forest ... back to normal":
normality defined in human/rational terms, eg "the animals fallen speechless
again, tree-shadows again pointing in their accustomed directions". The
locals are left with the mysterious loss of Magyakan; while Kit and Prance
are compelled to go on, to move forward, whatever that means. In neither
case is 'rational' explanation possible.