Atdtda26: Predators of one kind or another, 725-728

[Paul Nightingale]

Scarsdale Vibe gambling. The previous section had featured his attempt to
achieve omniscience, with or without the aid of Foley Walker. Here, he is
prepared "to buy all the school-of-Squarciones he could put his hands on in
the hopes that someplace in there might be an unattributed Mantegna somebody
had overlooked". The object of desire--previously Kit, here a
painting--cannot escape his gaze. We are reminded of his "personal tyranny"
in the treatment of Foley Walker: "tasks ... that were embarrassing at best
and often competitive with some of Foley's old Civil War nightmares". Hence,
something of a contrast to Scarsdale's claim earlier that Foley "see[s] the
same set of books". Or perhaps sings from the same hymn-sheet: here
Scarsdale has him sing for his supper, the text correcting itself from
"Scarsdale had already picked up a minor angel just by singing" to "[w]ell,
actually, he had Foley sing it". A shift from one narrative position to
another, the latter all-seeing, perhaps. Cf. "what happened to 'we'" on 724.

Hence, the increased "humiliation rate" (726), with Foley--"still the
'other' Scarsdale Vibe (724)--transformed into "a performing monkey" (726).
The scare-quotes mock such a notion: similarly, "school-of" imitations
cannot be the real thing, however hard they try.

All of which helps explain why Foley might wish to tamper with Scarsdale's
air supply on 726. Here, of course, Scarsdale is ignorant of what his 'tool'
or second pair of hands is doing, just as he is 'misinformed' by his view of
the underwater painting: "... approached with the dreamy smoothness of a
marine predator, the depiction seemed almost three-dimensional" (or
'rounded', a concept beloved of some Pynchon commentators).

Informing us of Foley's action here, the narration positions the reader as
being more aware than Scarsdale, who no longer has any claim to omniscience,
quite the opposite.

Subsequently the narrative shifts to the Traverse brothers, juxtaposing
Scarsdale-Foley to Reef-Kit, with Reef wondering if he "can count on" his
brother (727). The chapter's opening scene-setting description of Scarsdale
Vibe and Foley Walker (724) emphasises their place within the leisure class;
while the Traverses are rooming "in Cannareggio, where everybody seem[s] to
be poor" (727). However, Reef invokes the same war that shaped
Scarsdale-Foley ("... it's wartime, ain't it. Not like Antietam maybe ...")
to raise the possibility that Kit isn't committed to the cause. Further down
the page Kit accuses his brother of "Anarchist talk" as they discuss the
possibility of killing Scarsdale Vibe: the threat provided by Foley Walker,
a 'brother-in-arms' in the class war is therefore balanced by political
opposition.