Atdtda29: The purpose of fiction, 822-826

[Paul Nightingale]

Bevis provides the soundtrack ("reel[ing] out a line of patter") as Cyprian
observes "the flowing scenery". Cyprian is again distanced from "island
cities" etc, as though watching a film. Cf. Merle on 451, "contemplating the
strange relation these moving pictures had with Time". For Merle "it all
depend[s] on fooling the eye" as he considers still images in rapid
succession. Here, Cyprian considers "variations on the theme of Venice"
(822): as with film, progression is registered by difference. There will be
more repetition with M.6I (823), both within the text and intertextually.

The opening passage indicates, as heard by Cyprian, that "no girl, however
desperate for company, would ever have sat still for" Bevis' chat-up (822):
Jacintha, then, as the "apprentice" spy, deviates from 'normal' (or
'realistic') female behaviour in order to quote it. As they dance, her
performance-by-quotation includes "flourishing her lashes" and "doing her
best to follow his lead" (823).

Seen from Cyprian's pov here, Jacintha has replaced Yashmeen in the text
(and subsequently she will indeed begin to flirt with him: "... he could not
avoid thinking of Yashmeen", 825). Again, he "suppose[s] due diligence [must
call] for a spot of intrusion" (824); a speculative note echoed in the
following paragraph with his assumption that "young Jacintha was ahead of
him, it seemed". As Cyprian interprets the action on behalf of the reader,
the new paragraph (top of 825) inserts a more omniscient narrative voice,
one insisting that "[n]o one could remember ever seeing Cyprian dance".
Here, the reader has been distanced from Cyprian's introspection. However,
as the reader departs the dance-floor, they take with them Cyprian's pov:
"Meanwhile, out on deck, Lady Quethlock was engaged in conversation with two
other spies pretending to be idiots."

Ostensibly, the scene shifts to a discussion of "the world's most enigmatic
river", one taking the form of discourse: "If you believe Virgil ..." etc.
As such it recalls, most recently, the oral history offered by Vlado
(818-819). Eridanus, as shifting signifier, recalls Cyprian's parting
moments with Yashmeen and the brief discussion of Enigma Variations (815).
Reading, we interrupt the discussion ("... she was saying", 825), and then
discover that we have accompanied "the lovely Jacintha", whose presence is
announced as another interruption, a distraction, one of the idiot-spies (or
even spy-idiots) taking the opportunity to halt Lady Quethlock's lecture.
One question ("I am hoping to resolve ...") is replaced by another ("What
have you been up to?") as Lady Quethlock turns her attention to Jacintha's
perspiration. As the section ends, neither question has been answered, and
the reader shares the pov of idiots/spies. There is no indication that
Cyprian, with whom we began, has accompanied Jacintha to the deck: her
"predatory" gaze, immediately before the scene transition, is replaced by
that of "the [implicitly male] company" (top of 826). Lady Quethlock's
authoritative discourse is replaced by silent contemplation of the
(Proustian) "proper little captive".