Atdtda34: An old rogue's dream, 972-975 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

In the second half of the section two characters (re)appear. Firstly,
Auberon Halfcourt is discovered in a paragraph devoted to plotting and 'what
the Compassionate liked to call a metaphor': once again official history
('secret Austrian minefields') is pushed to one side by the personal
trajectory of the characters we have been following. Yet it soon becomes
clear that it is in the context of history that Halfcourt has understood
where they would arrive. Again, as with cricket, 'the Parisian arcades' and
'the old Venetian fort' offer traces of history, another way of explaining
how 'we' arrived at this place. The Compassionate were introduced on 749, in
Yashmeen's letter to Halfcourt (mentioned on 974); the description she
offers there ('a great skyborne town and a small band of serious young
people ...' etc) puts the reader in mind of the Chums and, as we recall that
reference, we might think back a few pages to the bottom of 969, where the
narrative tells us 'the Chums of Chance had been invisibly but attentively
keeping an eye on the progress of Reef's family'.

Yashmeen has earlier described Halfcourt as her 'second father' (595); here,
she notes that, following the birth of her daughter, 'other loves must be
accordingly re-evaluated' (973). Auberon himself claims 'I am not who I
was'. So we have the fatedness of their meeting set against shifting
identity and reconstructed relationship, aspects of the writing that are
emphasised here. However, the section will end with Yashmeen's conviction
that he hasn't changed (top of 975). Halfcourt says he has deserted (974),
even though 'they' think him dead. He hasn't really deserted, then, insofar
as his action has failed to draw the response that desertion would usually
merit: that his agency is in conflict with the interpretation of others is
another way of re-establishing his professional status.