Atdtda26: Which leads an observer, 732-736

[Paul Nightingale]

Experience is shaped by language: Kit contemplates the way his function as
“Webb’s vengeful ghost” will be labelled ‘terrorist’, the parenthetical
insert (“he might no longer say ‘home’”) perhaps invoking the Orwell
Introduction’s discussion of the language of propaganda. The “dreamed
future” he imagines takes him back to the Stupendica, “[s]omeplace out on
the Atlantic”: a neither here nor-there location (and one recalls his
movements up- and downstairs) that meant he was safely cosseted from action.
Here, he has just--ie a few pages ago, on 727--been challenged by Reef. He
(or the narrator on his behalf) refers to his father by name (cf. Foley’s
“his Pappy” on 724) as though to understate family ties, or take them out of
the equation altogether. Reef’s questioning of his ability to act recalls
the earlier, post-burial decision to link Kit and Lake, keep them at a
distance (216).

Kit’s introspective account is taken over by mathematical musings; and again
experience--this time of “[s]itting out in the Piazza ...” etc (732)--is
shaped by the language of his post-family (post Traverse?) years. Surrounded
by “these folks”--and like Lew on 605 complaining about local coffee, a
means to reinforce his Americanness, perhaps, a reminder of his outsider
status--he then focuses on Dally as an individual set apart from the crowd.
Her appearance is 'striking': her hair colour juxtaposed to “the pearl gray
of the maritime sky”. Discursively, this construction is central to the rest
of the section. A little later: “... Kit had got as far as noticing her
eyes, which even allowing for this venetian light seemed strangely
silver-green ...” etc (734). And then: “... abruptly her hair went
incandescent” (735).

Straightaway on 732 Dally criticises Kit’s choice of café (“Does it have to
be Quadri?”) as earlier “she congratulated herself for not smirking” (730)
when Hunter suggested Ruperta meet him at Florian’s. In so doing she
demonstrates the knowledge of one who isn’t an outsider, or tourist--taking
us back to her surprise at “the same American mask ...” etc on 728. Here,
she accurately summarises the situation: “You’re already sittin at the wrong
caffè ...” etc (733). Subsequently, “... me, on the other hand, I know how
to go around unseen, unheard ...” etc (733). Cf. her reading of the
Principessa on 730-731. Her claim to be ‘invisible’ might also remind us of
Reef’s own first appearance here, on 729, “[finding] some way to keep inside
his own shadow”.

Once Reef has again disappeared Dally explains that she has already worked
out what Kit tells her. Her appearance on 732 has signalled two dialogue
passages with first Reef, principally, Kit interrupting, and then Kit. She
alerts him to her presence by speaking (“don’t let me interrupt”, 732),
introducing speech into the narrative.

Here, Kit’s introspective mode at the beginning of the section is maintained
by the frequent allusions to his take on her appearance: if she can read the
plot against Scarsdale Vibe, reiterating what the reader already knows, his
function here is to provide the reader with a version of Dally, a male
perspective that the text has previously denied Hunter or Tancredi. This
reading of Dally transfers to the Principessa at the end of the section
(“perfect with your eyes”, 736). Cf. Hunter’s “once-over” on 576. Also Kit’s
line on the Stupendica, on 512: “You were there with a girl in a red dress.”
On the concluding discussion of the (post-Kit) ball: cf. Dally and Katie in
New York, on 345.