Atdtda37: At which point Lew finally remembered, 1049-1051 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

Merle/Roswell describe a process that, in theory, renders history
transparent, then suggest (the 'tricky party') that exposing the truth might
not be so straightforward. Knowable but not known, the difference between
something called reality and the way we know it. What the 'little folks' do
is evade the reader's scrutiny and open up a range of possible
interpretations, but this only happens once they have been subject to
investigation. For Lew, detective work rests on the assumption of an
unproblematic truth, a reality waiting to be exposed: here, he is brought
tantalisingly close to the possibility of resolution, but also sees the
truth out of reach. No one knows what happened to Louis Le Prince: would a
photograph help?

Suddenly introspective, Lew has ceased to be a detective-for-hire; as he
muses on 'detours from what he still thought of as his official,
supposed-to-be life' (1050) he is distracted from ('detours from') what
Merle/Roswell expect him to be thinking of. He becomes their (potential)
client, perhaps, suddenly inscrutable: hence Roswell's 'puzzled look that
fell just short of annoyed'. Roswell's question ('But why?') is then
followed by Merle's attempt to remind Lew why he has been called in: from a
detective who, abruptly, no longer resembles a detective to 'funny things've
been happening'. And then, down the page, Roswell's 'what do you think?'

When Merle/Roswell are reintroduced on 1035, the latter with a shotgun, it
seems there has been a significant development in their careers: 'the time
is damn sure upon us', updated in the current section by Merle's 'funny
things . happening . lately' (1050). On 1035, Merle refers 'in a stage
whisper' to Roswell's '[o]ld-time form of paranoia', and later there is his
'strikingly advanced case of paranoia querelans' (1036): what follows here,
with Roswell's 'twitching ears' a signifier, is 'mental activity' that
replays the past as one of their photographs might (eg memories 'bloom[ing]
and stream[ing] kaleidoscopically in and out of his attention', 1037). It is
then Merle who contacts Lew on 1045 and, on 1048, we find Merle's 'nervous
precautions': where they appear together, the narrative draws attention to
Roswell's suspicions and he is the one who recalls Louis Le Prince (perhaps
another example of 'paranoia querelans', as is his parting reference to 'a
miracle' (1051).

 

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