Atdtda32: This confounded gazing, 916-917

[Paul Nightingale]

Here is the "stillness" (or "equilibrium" or "fate") Kit invoked earlier
(top of 911). There, the final paragraph of 62.2 sketches in his journey,
"short hops in little steamers"; in similar vein, the current section has
Kit and Dally plotting a "devious" route to Venezia (916). They don't get
very far. At the outset, their aim is to avoid a return to the moment that
reunited them, courtesy of Imi/Erno, on 909 (notwithstanding comments by the
"telepathic waiter" on 914, of course); however, once at Lake Balaton, they
find they need, as did the burgher king, leisure time. If they insert
themselves into a scene made up of "hundreds of families on vacation" (916),
they soon find themselves left behind as the sun goes down. Inactivity here
contrasts with the sex of the previous pages, a "confounded gazing" that
recalls the window-shopping of 914-915; and the section ends with "this
exuberant elopement" and confinement to a hotel room (917). In these final
lines their solitude is juxtaposed to life elsewhere: "Lights came on ..."
etc. Cf Dally's "Oh, c'mon ..." etc on 914.