Posted by noa on October 19, 2000, at 18:51:11
In reply to The Circumcision, posted by pullmarine on October 18, 2000, at 0:39:31
Pullmarine--
Some associations to this story:
Perhaps an expression, in an extreme form, of what many go through as they separate from their parents in young adulthood. Although it is possible to tear away, so to speak, without having to self-mutilate, for many, it seems not possible.
It brings to mind youth subculture fads, like body peircing, etc., BUT, those also have the element of making the person similar to a peer subculture that takes the place of the parents.
It also makes me think of how we may loathe the parts of our self that we internalized from our parents, and how we might engage in self-destructive or self-defeating patterns because of that self-loathing.
In the story, the man found solice in having his face permanently altered. But the parallel to the self falls apart here. Any self-destructive ways we treat our selves doesn't seem, to me, to result in that kind of redemption from what is hated. However, in the story, it is not really the self-mutilation alone that results in the man's experience of redemption, it is how the self-violence brings about reconstruction, albeit imperfect. The man finds hope in a new reality, not in going back to what was before. When a person harms themselves, bringing on treatment, the treatment cannot possibly restore the self to some sort of pristine state as though the pain and self-loathing never happened. The reconstruction is imperfect, but perhaps that is where hope lies?
Both this story and the laughing woman story involve looking beyond the surface of what we usually see as we move through daily existence. Both characters see something others can't.
poster:noa
thread:1074
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/1331.html