Atdtda25: Petite mort, 721-722

[Paul Nightingale]

The new section opens with Cyprian allowed to speak; in contrast to the
claustrophobia section just concluded, Yashmeen and Cyprian are "out
strolling in the evening ..." etc. And so to "window shopping" and Cyprian's
giveaway "visibly erect penis", seen previously when he was being whipped by
the Colonel (700), and then tangling with Theign (707). Yashmeen notes his
"desire for self-surrender" (721) and then addresses his "frightfully
irregular sexual life". She speaks and acts with some authority, "back to
[her] old self", according to Cyprian. Her seduction of him--the opposite of
"window-shopping"--leaves him, once more, unable to speak, ejaculation as
expressive as it had been earlier with the Colonel (700). The still-life
that opens 50.3 (720) is disturbed; and "... soaking the tablecloth
extensively with coffee ..." etc (721) recalls his collar soaked in saliva
on 707, not to mention his response to Yashmeen's departure from Cambridge
on 594 ("squads of gyps wringing out mop after mop sort of thing"). The
inarticulate mumbling that closes the section (bottom of 721, top of 722)
recalls his interrogation at the start of this chapter (top of 713).