Atdtda26: What happened to we, 724-725

[Paul Nightingale]

Scarsdale Vibe and Foley Walker seek "temporary refuge from the murderous
fields of capitalist endeavour ..." etc, from the here and now: cf. the
introduction of Candlebrow on 406.

Foley opens the discussion with news of Kit's departure from Gottingen.
Foley says "did a skip"; Scarsdale turns that into "disappear[ed]", which in
turn must mean "[Kit] knows something". The set-up ("temporary refuge") is a
denial of the Vibe role in "capitalist endeavour", as though the
surroundings ("no artefact ... younger than a thousand years") can confer
("temporary") disguise; yet Scarsdale must impose his perspective and invoke
both omniscience and his failure to achieve/sustain it. Only when Foley
speaks does Kit's absence (ie his presence elsewhere) becomes a
disappearance: one, moreover, that signifies knowledge.

If Scarsdale and Foley appear out of synch here, the impression is
corroborated by the subsequent exchange, Foley's "... you paid to have his
Pappy put out of the way" succeeded by Scarsdale's "... what happened to
'we'..." etc. Scarsdale reminds Foley that "[y]ou see the same set of books
I do" (725), an attempt to synchronise perspectives. Silence from Foley, who
"[takes] out a huge jackknife ..." etc. Cf. his first appearance on 31 as "a
large and criminal-looking individual" whose function is to intimidate
Professor Vanderjuice. Once again Foley's (eye-witness) testimony ("I'm not
sure") is transformed by Scarsdale's "[h]e saw you ..." etc. Back on 620-621
Foley 'visits' Kit at a time when his actual presence in Gottingen remains
in doubt (eg, 619); only when his departure is recorded on 623 (with Kit
"off to the Klapsmuhle") is this matter (perhaps) clarified. In the current
section Scarsdale Vibe's certainty matches that of the narrator. Finally,
Foley's "personal guarantee" (725) isn't worth the paper it has been written
on (courtesy of Sam Goldwyn). As with the "man-made structures of some
antiquity" (724) this verbal statement is pre-capitalist.