Atdtda27: A question of agency, 762-764

[Paul Nightingale]

Kit appears, "[o]ne evening shortly after his arrival". The previous section
began with Prance, who "had shown up one night unannounced" (761). There
might well be narrative continuity here: Halfcourt thinking of Yashmeen,
then recalling Prance as he used to be, which passage interrupts the
progression from Halfcourt-Yashmeen to Halfcourt-Kit. However, the chapter
has been waiting for Kit to meet Halfcourt: if Halfcourt 'acknowledges' the
letter in 53.7, it is only now that he can share a scene with Kit. As the
section opens, Halfcourt speaks, openly if one considers his evasive
responses to Prance on the previous page; he acknowledges Kit as his
"counterpart in hopelessness" (762), an impression strengthened by the
"traditional twilight arrack-and-soda" that links them in the opening lines.
The way in which Halfcourt positions Kit recalls the caginess of the scene
with Prokladka, in which he claimed to be finding common cause (758).

Eventually, the shared scene gives way to Halfcourt's introspection, Kit
distanced by "[y]oung Mr. Traverse" (763). Kit's youthfulness is equated to
naivety as Halfcourt registers irritation: again, Prance is recalled here, a
man with a past, a history, that is to say, one Halfcourt himself can relate
to (and Prance, assuming a superior tone, will then advise Kit he will need
to be "lucky enough to grow into [his] role", 764). For Kit, there is a
past, a personal history involved, of course, this "next stage in a mission
beyond Kashgar" one that takes him beyond Yashmeen and Swone.

Halfcourt sees himself as a pioneer of the colonialist enterprise. Kit has
no such history, it seems; and not for the first time there is a dig at
mass-produced tourism (763). Hence Kit is "an obviously drifting wreck" and
"a wastrel", with nothing to set against Halfcourt's own "stable career";
and subsequently Halfcourt brings Kit and Prance together with the aid of
maps (764). What Kit here calls "metaphysical hogwash" is Prance's attempt
to distinguish their journey from that of "ordinary travelers" or tourists,
perhaps. From Kit's perspective, Prance's own appearance is odd, always "the
British idiot". Cf. his introduction, offered from Halfcourt's pov on 761:
"Now he could scarcely be recognized ..." etc.