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Ivan Pope:
"Then you must be daft!" says P.C. Copper."
This is the key moment of the book. Now everything can never be the same again. Innocence has come up against the might of the state. The apple (for yes, it is that most innocent of fruits, sinned not against, but on) has demonstrably not come down again. However, P.C. Copper cannot countenance this, as it undermines his claim to be all knowing on behalf of the state.
"How can an apple stay up in the air so long? It must have been stolen by a bird. Now, move along there!"
With this one sentence P.C. Copper acts as judge, jury and executioner. He assesses the evidence. He comes up with a random theory to provide a rational reason. Then he pronounces the only sentence he could: move along there!
Anyone who has been to art college will recognise this moment. Your carefully constructed theory, work and explanation has just been demolished by some half arsed squit who is only putting in a few hours so that they can get back to their own studio. Everyone else in the crit, who has up to this point been enthusiastically finding nice things to say about your work, suddenly wonders whether the emperor actually does have any clothes. Their eyes are opened by authority and they feel vaguely foolish.
Farmer Barleymow feels very foolish and goes red in the face. "I must be daft," he thinks, "wasting my time here when I could be driving my tractor."
The worm has entered the apple. The purity of art in the garden of eden has been undermined by the appearance of a serpent dressed as a copper.
