Atdtda34: Don't sound too nomadic, 971-972

[Paul Nightingale]

This short section appears as a coda to the one preceding it; perhaps it
functions as a close-up, so to speak, taking Reef/Yashmeen/Ljubica out of
any social context (eg 'up near a town'). One can attempt to explain it with
reference to the ending of 64.26: they have left the village where, as they
are 'snowed in', the narrative has returned Reef to his relationship with
Yashmeen by taking him away from his interactions with others. The final
paragraph ('Reef and Yashmeen were to find themselves ...' etc) provides a
bridge to the new section by making of Reef/Yashmeen a couple, 'their backs
often as not to the wind' etc. They have a 'duty', action that precludes
choice, 'emerg[ing] simply from the turns of their fate': there is a denial
of agency here, determinism perhaps, 'a conscious and searching force ...'
etc, 'something malevolent and much older than the terrain or any race that
might have passed in unthinking pilgrimage across it'.

We go from that insistence on a 'something else' to Reef's reputation as a
poor fisherman but here he is successful, 'contrary to all expectations':
the good fortune that featured in the previous section continues here and we
might even think, once more, of the Chums. At the end of the first
paragraph, 'he and Yash allowed themselves a moment of slack just to stand
and stare'. Cf, above the section break: 'Reef and Yashmeen were to find
themselves standing against the snow descending ...' etc. Or, earlier, the
opening to 64.25: 'They looked across the lake ...' etc.

The exchange that follows (stasis vs movement, perpetual motion) echoes the
exchange that closed 64.25: 'Hell, let's do it.' Reef projects here ('Pretty
scenic ...' etc) before Yashmeen pulls him back to reality: 'That's the
worst of it ... so beautiful.'

At the bottom of the page Reef mentions Colorado. This comment takes us back
to the opening of the section and his erstwhile career as a 'luckless
fisherman'; it also projects a future, albeit differently to the previous
section's 'later ... both remembered feeling ...' etc. As we turn the page,
Ljubica appears out of nowhere (she 'happened to be in Reef's arms', 972),
reminding us, perhaps, of Reef/Yashmeen's 'duty'; that the reader is granted
access to her consciousness will also emphasise the role of a controlling
narrative voice.