Atdtda36: Not that I invented any of this really, 1033-1035

[Paul Nightingale]

In the previous section Randolph speculates as to 'extra work-shifts', what
Lindsay calls 'the further expansion of an already prodigious American
economy'. The current section then begins with confirmation of some kind of
scam, a cheque bouncing and the Chums 'without employment in a peculiar
corner of a planet that might or might not be their own'. Cf the earlier
designation of California 'as a remote and mythical locale' (bottom of
1028). Their progress comes to an abrupt halt and the rest of the section is
taken up with Chick's adventures with his father and Treacle.

Again, as in the previous section, there is no mention of Viridian or any of
her friends, but Chick here becomes involved, sort of, with his father's
'third wife, Treacle, who was Chick's age and possibly younger, and seemed
unusually attentive to Chick' (1034). Treacle is described in some detail,
and is, perhaps, neglected by her husband, 'Dick': the scare-quotes that
accompany his name are a reminder of the self-reinvention he has claimed
(where the scare-quotes, of course, are absent, eg: 'Call me Dick, everybody
in the world does ...' etc). Treacle is juxtaposed to the gadgetry 'Dick'
cannot wait to show off, in the first instance his Packard ('Ain't she a
beauty?) but then ('Get a load of this') the 'huge piece of machinery' that
might bring to mind television. 

If Treacle is 'unusually attentive to Chick', he 'gaze[s] with great
scientific curiosity at the shimmering image'. Then, top of 1035, '...
instead of watching the dots of light ...' etc, 'she was watching Chick'.
Treacle is both the past ('Chick's age and possibly younger') and, as
'Dick's' third wife, the future. Indeed, does 'Dick' 'pick up' wives the way
he does television programmes?

In the previous section Randolph's 'extra work-shifts' and Lindsay's
'further expansion of an already prodigious American economy' (1033) refer
most obviously to manufacturing: these are the years of Taylor and Ford.
However, 'the shimmering image which appeared on a screen ...' etc (1034),
followed by 'Dick's' reference to scheduling ('I pick this one up every week
around this time ...' etc) invokes television and the manipulation, not of
the working life, but of life at home. A few pages back there is a reference
to family life in the future with the Chums 'destined after all to seek
wives, to marry and have children and become grandparents' (1030). Here, in
the continued absence of Viridian et al, the reference to television gives
us the privatisation of family life from the 1950s, the way in which this
version of family life would be used to deliver individuals to advertisers.