Atdtda31: Shock of waking, 872

[Paul Nightingale]

A brief section in which Cyprian's name isn't mentioned although we might
conclude he is its subject. The opening sentence offers a forthcoming
"crisis" that recalls the previous section's "damned general European war"
(871), here set against "the everyday".

Interpretation of the dream is elusive. Yashmeen has betrayed the 'him' to
"some apparatus" that, like the narrative's subject, cannot be named.
Earlier sections see Cyprian thinking of/interacting with Yashmeen and
Theign: here, if he thinks of betrayal, Yashmeen has become Theign.
Moreover, the dreamed "apparatus" is no more Austria than were the mapped
images discussed earlier. Displacement. If Yashmeen has betrayed him with
Reef, one can also see Cyprian-as-Vlado as the nameless subject. Characters
as apparatus; and "the everyday" as an intolerable realism.