Bases and Faces
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@hotpop.com)
Mon, 04 Oct 1999 10:50:44 +1000
Hello ... little quiet here, ain't it? Last night I couldn't find Hapworth
so I decided to re-read `The Laughing Man', and made a few observations.
Primarily, I think this story is about unmasking; about showing the true
face. I've heard the Zen koan about the Original Face used in reference to
this story and it's not a bad jumping off point: `What was your original
face, the one that you had before the one your parents gave you'. A mask is
protection - but as it is pointed out, it also serves to mark out TLM as
different, you can smell the opium when he is near by. The only time he is
real is when he allows himself to be vulnerable - when he takes his mask
off - and yet this is the time where he is mortally wounded. I suspect
something very similar happened between the Chief and Mary - that the Chief
`took off his mask' for her, showed her his real face - and by exposing
himself to danger, got burned. In turn, he rudely rips the mask off life
for his Comanches.
Might I also add that whoever came up with the idea about paralleling the
baseball bases to the sexual bases is a genius - because it is even noted
that Mary `hated first base' and was always trying to steal second or
third. Her prowess at baseball also surprises the small boys - could this
metaphorically indicate that for a blushing violet of a girl like Mary
Hudson she has, to the Chief, a surprising sexual drive and, by using the
catcher's glove, literally refuses to wear the right protection?
Pretty minor stuff for a Labour day weekend (which it is here today) but
.. hey! I get very depressed when my mailbox is empty!
Camille
verona_beach@hotpop.com