Atdtda31: Real power, real pain, 876-879

[Paul Nightingale]

Cyprian's sensitivity to Yashmeen's ("implacable", 875) gaze is in some
contrast to the indifference described in the opening to 60.8: "... the
assumption that he was all but invisible before the public gaze" (876), that
is, the judgement of men. Cf his pursuit of Theign on 871: "Cyprian recited
the appropriate formulae and became invisible." As Theign puts it here,
"you're not exactly a drug on the market of desire ..." etc. Yashmeen, it
seems, is the only one who can read him, "under[standing] in a pulsebeat ...
what she was looking at".

At this point, bottom of the page, the writing shifts to accompany Yashmeen:
"For years Yashmeen had been the one obliged ..." etc (top of 877).
Cyprian's (unexpected, "his miraculous resurrection") return is here
rendered from her pov (and cf Theign on 872: "We thought you were dead").
There is symmetry. ("Wrong sod, I'm afraid", 876) is obsessed with Yashmeen;
in her own way, she satisfies "his appetite for sexual abasement". On the
next page, Yashmeen's own sexuality is brought into focus, as Cyprian is
equated to "London shopgirl and haughty Girtonian" (877). The earlier
"sexual abasement" (876) becomes, following the shift in perspective,
"almost an indifference to self" (877). But then, turning the page, we have
Yashmeen herself "behaving like a love-smitten girl" (878). His poor
timekeeping ("minutes late for a rendezvous") is juxtaposed to "formal
cruelties she might then devise for his penance": she returns to her earlier
fear of his disappearance, never to return (see the exchange on 875-876).

By the end of the section they have achieved some kind of routine satisfying
on both sides. Cyprian's earlier indifference to how he looks (876) is
succeeded by a willingness to transform himself to please Yashmeen: "... if
there were any changes I might make ... that you'd find more appealing"
(879). And now, in contrast to her earlier relentless scrutiny of him: "...
pretending to examine him ...".