This blog post develops on the ideas of the first. I focus on the adjectives that the text uses to develop the images that Captain Richard himself sees. Instead of the words creating images in our mind only, they instead allow us insight into the images the characters have which in turn help us understand the characters and setting.
Passage pg 86-88
This passage is mostly about Captain Richard’s first impressions of Zapparoni. Just meeting the man face to face shows Richard the dichotomy of the public image of Zapparoni and the shrewd businessman that created his empire. Richard seems awed and stunned by Zapparoni’s ability to switch between personas. He can’t comprehend that the Zapparoni could be the “benign grandfather” that “amuse[d] all the children, great and small” and the leader of a massive company that designs automatons for every aspect of life. What makes this possible is the science fiction portion of the passage. Jünger sets it up with the quote “I cannot be in four places at once.” That is just a given limitation of human life. Richard believes that it is impossible for Zapparoni to be these two distinct persons, and he must have automatons to assist in creating his image. Richard believes that Zapparoni has found a way to “enter apparatuses and leave parts of ourself within them.” The use of words like ‘we’ and ‘ourself’ instead of ‘I’ and ‘yourself’ indicated that Richard thinks the multiple Zapparoni’s walking around are their own person. Perhaps Zapparoni has split his personalities for “a profitable extension.”
These automatons are also a sign of the progression of technology. Richard begins his military career with swords on horseback. Two or three wars later, wars are fought with tanks. A few years after that is the possibility of automatons replicating or being parts of Zapparoni’s personality. The fact that Richard even thinks that is possible reflects the mind-boggling speed technology has advanced during his lifetime.
The tone of the passage is complimentary and respectful of Zapparoni’s
accomplishments. He is constantly being described with words such as “skillful,” “great,” “connoisseur,” and “good.” Even when Richard questions Zapparoni’s identity, he can only see Zapparoni as a kind grandfather figure. This could be caused by the extensive PR work done to give Zapparoni such a positive image.
Jünger uses the phrase “Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune were in powerful conjunction.” When I looked this up, this means that the planets were aligned closely when viewed. I think this metaphor could mean Richard thinks that all the right traits and events were in place for Zapparoni to grow his company, or it could mean Zapparoni assembled his team of inventors in harmony to produce his automatons.