Atdtda33: Fascination alert, 939-941

[Paul Nightingale]

In previous sections the Cyprian/Yashmeen/Reef ménage-a-trois has been
joined by an alternative Ratty/Jenny/Sophrosyne version. Above the section
break the previous section ended with Cyprian and Yashmeen talking
privately, distanced from the gathering that had been discussing the map.
This withdrawal from the group took them back in time; what they discussed,
however, Yashmeen’s pregnancy, invoked the future. The new section begins
with Cyprian thinking about a possible return to the Balkan Peninsula, “as
if only interested in a technical way” (940). At the end of the previous
section Yashmeen tells him he’s “still living in the last century” (939);
here he thinks about being no longer “young and desirable” (940). Ratty
emphasises his career history, noting “you’re the closest thing we have to
an Old Balkan Hand” (939), the caps suggesting a role that must be played,
performed self-consciously, as if in a drama. In this section, then, Cyprian
seems to be emerging from domesticity: cf his earlier, somewhat sardonic
comment on “swott[ing] up on modern midwifery”.

At first Ratty appears to break into Cyprian’s thoughts; he introduces
Professor Sleepcoat, who becomes fixated on Yashmeen when she announces her
presence at the bottom of 940. When Yashmeen mentions “her former
connections with the T.W.I.T.” (941) he describes her as “an
ex-neo-Pythagorean”: as with Ratty’s labelling of Cyprian, this is an
attempt to fit her into some kind of history. And cf Jenny’s feminist take
on T.W.I.T. (933-934).

Yashmeen has, of course, chosen this moment, and this means, to insert
herself into the discussion: she announces her presence to the reader while
announcing her credentials to Professor Sleepcoat. Top of 941 he describes
her as an expert on the Balkans, which ties her to Cyprian. The latter is
then reminded of his relationship with Reef, “long familiar with the
scenario that developed among those meeting Yashmeen for the first time”:
here the relationship rather than the individual has a history. At which
point Reef himself appears in the scene, just as he is leaving.