Atdtda34: Always that risk, 956-961 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

Yashmeen's "statelessness" is then described in the midst of Cyprian's
removal from the group. Cyprian argues for a god plan; she "[takes] it
personally anyway". On the previous page she has invoked some kind of
heaven-sent or sacred knowledge, "[t]rivial, housewifely me" (957),
continuing: "... I pray you may arrive at a moment of knowledge remotely
like it". Here, then, she claims a superior knowledge (or experience);
immediately after, Cyprian announces the break. On 958 Yashmeen then
acknowledges, privately, what she "already knew". The narrative here rests
on her thoughts in relation to Cyprian, just as, previously, it gave us her
reaction to Father Ponko's account of the local religion. Hence the way in
which she frames Cyprian's departure, echoing the genealogical account with
which the section opens on 956: "... as if he had discovered a way back, ...
a reoccupying of a life ..." etc (958).

Cyprian offers confirmation when he insists "[t]hey are taking me in exactly
as the person I am, ... [n]o more of these tiresome gender questions".
Nonetheless, he will be accused of vanity ("Listen to yourself") when he
draws their attention to "the roll of fat in question" (959), and the reader
is reminded of earlier references to his "current waist measurement". In
Vienna, the "[l]ocal baked goods ... kept within his easy reach" (712) mean
that, on 715, he "appear[s] each time immeasurably fatter"; a page later he
meets Yashmeen (716) and will, consequently, have some recollection of
Cambridge. The context here is his sexual appetite and ongoing relationship
with the Colonel and Theign, and then his "first time with a woman, if I'm
not mistaken" (721); shortly afterwards, Theign notes that "[t]he bloom's
been off your rosebud for quite some time" (723; and cf Cyprian's own view
of the Colonel on 831). Later, meeting Reef for the first time, he considers
his own appearance (869, more precisely, his hair); and then, for Carnevale,
"his waist drawn in to an impossibly slender circumference" (881), followed
by "Cyprian billowing in whites and pastels (888).

In arguing against Cyprian's decision, Reef reads the future, "[n]othing
telepathic, just professional" (959); Cyprian, by way of response, says
"there won't be any war" (a strange echo, if nothing else, of Charles Foster
Kane). He justifies ("explain[s]") his conviction here by describing the
religious beliefs he will be adopting: "... one seeks to become not a bride
at all really, but a kind of sacrifice, an offering, to Night". Down the
page, given the one question he is allowed, he asks Father Ponko: "What is
it that is born of light?" Father Ponko is evasive, and the narrative turns
to his interrogation of Yashmeen; again she returns to Chunxton Crescent and
the TWIT (960). Eventually, "in the courtyard", she sees authenticity where
the TWIT "was never more than a frail theatrical sketch" (961). One is aware
that meaning and different interpretations are based on what the reader
wants.