Come a ways with me
my dear Mr. N,
down to the river, and then
Narcissus looked into his ripply reflection and fell in love. Love became a watery end.
Later, much later, psychology added lustre to its theories by picking through the ancients, literature and myth. One of its appropriations was the myth of Narcissus.
Later, somewhat later, psychiatry formalized narcissism into a specific personality disorder, NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder).
II.
Narcissus, myth or disorder, doesn't get a direct reference till late in Graham Hurley's fine crime novel, One Under. But when the issue of narcissism arises, it leads to some striking passages, especially if your sense of humour includes schadenfreude.
III.
Mark Duley is an artistic type besotted with romantic love to a, well, narcissistic degree. When his married lover ends their affair, he won't have it. But when have it he must, he won't have it as any kind of normal breakup. So, he invites his lover to a "last supper" (oh), for after all, she had "crucified" him (ohh), betrayed him with a "kiss" (ohh!). <1>
And when Jenny Mitchell (the betrayer) tries to sympathize, all he can focus on is the "music", the music that only Mark and Jenny can hear. Mrs. Mitchell's response, when asked later how she addressed Duley's speculations about this music: "'I lied. I said I could hear it too.'"
IV.
There's much more that concludes this line of black comedy in Hurley, but to outline further would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say that Narcissus wasn't the last to find his fate looking back at him.
__________
<1>Hurley, Graham. One Under. Orion Books Ltd. 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment