Atdtda35: What he was seeing was anybody's guess, 990-995 #3

[Paul Nightingale]

Frank’s trance follows exclusion as Indians are ‘casting strange looks at
one another and avoiding everybody else’s eyes’. Even within the narrative
that unfolds (taking him back to ‘the same version of ancient Tenochtitlán
that El Espinero’s cactus had once taken him to’), ‘details [are] somehow
withheld from him’. The ‘Frank’ that passes beneath the arch is one he can
observe as another: cf the writing of hallucination on 924-926. Eventually
Frank must interpret (‘it slowly became clear to him’, 994) the ‘vision’ to
make it fit in with the perceived reality of ‘the indicative world’. Cf
Günther’s ‘telephone exchange’ analogy. Consequently he finally leaves
Mexico, accepting the kind of advice he rejected at the start of the chapter
on 982.

At the top of 995, Frank is back in Denver and we find that he has been
sending money home: these financial transactions have made the journey far
more easily than Frank himself. His foregoing experiences are now
represented as entries on a bank statement, one that confirm his status as
employee in various situations. That he thinks he is ‘getting paid for being
stupid’ underscores the sharp contrast between the factual and the
subjective.