Urth Net
Digest urth.v004.n009
↰ answers Peter Cash
· by quotation
1 quoted line
No. On the second day, he ambles around the North of the city, gradually coming to realize how deformed the Americans are. The crucial thing is that the "fear" passage cannot have been written any earlier than the third day. This is because he speaks of the fear as coming on him the previous day. This cannot have been on the first day--the day of his arrival--for his narrative of that day is clearly upbeat. It may have been on the second day, which ends with his realization that the Americans are more deformed than he had thought. There may even be one or more entire days missing here; there's no way to tell. But one thing is sure: the "fear" passage cannot have been written earlier than the third day. Everything follows from this.
Sgt. Rock,
Can't buy that. You've been misled by the non-sequential form, which starts with evening, goes back to morning (which is upbeat, indeed, but becomes less so), then night, then afternoon---the clue is that he walks north--then early evening, then night (written the next morning). Check it out again, sir.
-alga-