Atdtda33: A city not yet come into being, 924-927 #3

[Paul Nightingale]

On 925 the first reference to "Frank" (perhaps, a 'not-Frank') is tied to
the appearance of the priesthood/Hallucinati, ie political authority. Down
the page, the second reference to "Frank" is tied to "urban bustle":
economic activity facilitated by "obsidian coins bearing likenesses of
notable Hallucinati", present even when absent, desirable for commercial
reasons, if not sexually so. On 924 the "apprentice practitioner who seems
to be Frank himself" is given "the sacred Scrolls" to signify male potency,
perhaps, or even the hikuli that has given "Frank" mobility. A page later he
is reading ("or no not exactly read[ing]") another text, "the tale of The
Journey from Aztlan": reading/not reading is quickly replaced by oral
discourse, "a confab with one of the high priests", the latter telling him
"this is a city not yet come into being ..." etc.

On 923 the narrative, on behalf of Wren, refers to "refugees fleeing from
their mythical homeland of Aztlan up north": if indeed it is a "mythical
homeland" any flight from it must also be mythical. Hence "the mysterious
ruins" (a signifier without a signified) and the "semi-official" dig, one
that flirts with alternative/unsanctioned histories. At the bottom of 925
"the tale" that "Frank" reads is purportedly an account of that mythical
flight; if we recall that, on 278, she has been denied the status of author,
with the career implications that entails, perhaps the text stands in for
Wren herself, or at least the path she might have taken. Like the
Hallucinati, then, she becomes present even when absent.

The confab priest is not allowed to speak, so we cannot determine what
"Frank"/Frank (top of 926) discovers from the written account and what he is
told by the priest: the summary on 925-926 might well be, to go on using the
language of dream analysis, secondary revision. Nonetheless, it seems that
those fleeing "a terror not of the earth they thought they knew and
respected" are waiting for "a sign to tell them they have truly escaped"
(926): this "sign" (specifically, the meaning that results from the
relationship between signifier and signified) is something they envisage or
anticipate. As Frank emerges from hallucination he finds himself grasping "a
Mexican City newspaper" in which there is "nothing ... about Casa Grandes or
the battle there": the battle that, for the newspaper, remains in the
future.