Atdtda29: Itching to be filled in, 808-819

[Mark Kohut]

[edit] Balkan Peninsula         
Line stretching from the northernmost point of the Adriatic to the northernmost point of the Black Sea


  The Balkans are adjoined by water on three sides: the Black Sea to the east and branches of the mediterranean to the south and west (including the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and Marmara seas).
  
  [edit] The Balkans  The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of various cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagan Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity.
   
  TRP has chosen MAJOR HISTORICAL PLACES for the exploration/presentation---perhaps to show us the deep sources?--- of some of his ideas of History, yes?
   
  "Ideas are in the air".........kai
   
  Macedonia [Question].......turn-of-century America (esp. the West of America)...........Balkan Peninsula.................Vienna, cultural Capital............
  and more............................................
   
  

Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com> wrote:
    [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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