Atdtda29: Itching to be filled in, 808-819
Paul Nightingale
isread at btinternet.com
Sat Mar 29 12:13:42 CDT 2008
[808.35-809.37] "The Balkan Peninsula is the boardinghouse dining-room of
Europe," Ratty grumbled ...
A view of history that one can associate with the F.O. map that delights
Cyprian so on 806-807.
Cf. the alternative version offered by Vlado at the end of the chapter ...
[818.2-4] "I have to show you this," he said. He meant, "This is who I am,"
but she didn't understand until it was too late to matter.
And then, a page or so on ...
[819.13-14] "You ate people's hearts, she said, "so the stories go."
"Myself, personally? No."
Until, further down the page ...
[819.31-35] "... down in that labyrinth of streams, lakes, coves, and
cataracts, each with its narrative, sometimes older than the Argonauts'
expedition--before history, or even the possibility of connected
chronology--before maps, for what is a map in that lightless underworld,
what pilgrimage can it mark out the stations of?"
Speaking of which ...
[818.10-12] Coastal sailors here told of individual waves with faces and
voices, which persisted from day to day. Instead of blending back into the
general swell.
If Vlado, in the first instance, replaces Cyprian, note also the repetition
of Theign's appearance/disappearance. At the end of the chapter:
[819.38-39] Shortly after sunrise Vlado disappeared upcountry on one of his
political errands.
confirming the impression given earlier ...
[817.15] Vlado, who was unpredictably in and out of town ...
And so back to Theign, eg 800, "... with his head in the door, an inspection
visit no doubt ..."
Also, at the beginning of Ch57:
[806.1-3] Towards the end of October, all hell broke loose over the Austrian
announcement that they were intending to annex Bosnia. Theign looked in more
haggard than usual.
Until his final appearance in this chapter:
[812.17-18] "Suit yourself!" shrieked Theign at last, off without further
formalities for the train that would again take him to Vienna.
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