Atdtda29: In a former military brothel, 829-832

[Paul Nightingale]

The section divides in two, before and after the arrival of Khautsch on 831,
at which point Bevis attempts unsuccessfully to tell Cyprian ("I am
succumbing to nostalgia") that the "striking young vocalist and dancer" with
whom the section opens (829) is in fact "a bloke" (831). With Cyprian
finally prepared to listen, his attention is taken momentarily from
Khautsch; he now discovers that "the Colonel, curiously, ha[s] vanished"
(832). Moreover, if the dancer is not who 'she' seems to be, neither is
Khautsch, "booked into the Europe under another name".

In fact this is the first time the text has identified him as, in Misha's
words, "[y]our Colonel" (830). Cyprian, "drift[ing] over and join[ing] the
group loosely gathered around the Colonel's table" (831), turns Khautsch
into a focal point in opposition to the nominal entertainment; so both he
and Bevis are disillusioned by unforgiving close-ups. Moreover, if Cyprian
is comparing this Khautsch to the one he knew previously, we might surmise
that Bevis ("she's smashing", 829) has momentarily positioned the dancer as
a substitute for Jacintha. The dancer's costume ("... the veils were meant
more to be seen through than to protect") recalls Jacintha's last
appearance, as "entertain[ment]" at the end of 58.2: "Through her
translucent dress the company could see every fine movement of her limbs"
(top of 826). Hence, if indeed the dancer's costume has been designed "to be
seen through", one might infer that any 'disillusionment' is part of the
act, the male dancer quoting femininity as does Jacintha herself on 822-823.

For Cyprian's part, in order that he "[succumb] to nostalgia" (831), he must
somehow relish the updated view of Khautsch, not least the "fatal unevenness
in the length of Khautsch's mustache": the object of desire must have
undergone transformation. Khautsch is revealed as a "droning, seedy pub
bore"; but any transformation, Cyprian concludes, has taken place in his own
perceptions.