In this second in-class blog post, the assignment is represented by two seperate, yet equally important characters: Navidson's friend Tom and Johnny Truant. These are there stories.
Chung-Chung.
So, what do these two characters have in common, these men speaking at once between pages 251 and 268? Well, let's look at Tom. He's being a good sport by relaying messages between Navidson and Karen, but deep down in the nitty-gritty pit of his thoughts, "I don't want to be here...I'm not a hero. I'm not an adventurer (251). Tom just wants to live his existence in a way that doesn't endanger himself. But what is he doing hunkering down where the much discussed "Mr. Monster" is lurking? (251). He keeps himself busy by telling inappropriate jokes and having conversations with the alleged thing that's down there with Navidson and company; a mysterious "it" that shreds neon markers, which represent a source of light. Tom is in the presence of darkness and it's slowly turning him insane, while at the same time eliminating the bright shining feeling that is "hope" that Navidson's case will be quickly solved.
Now, let's look at Johnny. In the eight pages that the reader has with him, we learn about his sexual encounters (in addition to Lude's expansive list of partners in the past month). However, the sexual mentions are there to divert the reader's attention from examining the thing with lips "stuffed with god knows how many layers of tissue collected from the ass of some cadever" (266). The thing's name is Johnnie and she's the center of Truant's attention in this tiny anecdote. He tells the reader outright that he's afraid of the woman, with all her monstrous features about her, like her fingernails and the size of her breasts. He's actually happy he didn't get to lay the Gorgon-esque being who gives him a lift home. However, the Pekinese stray they picked up doesn't live happily ever after: "...I heard a thump... an eerie awful sound. Not too loud. Slightly hollow, in fact (267). The scrappy pooch bites the dust at Johnnie's will, and Truant's not quite sure how to handle the sudden impact of death. The woman's a physical manifestation of darkness, capable of taking life. Though our current narrator isn't trapped in a bad situation, he experiences the "evil" wandering the world, crushing all the light and good things it can find* Both Tom and Johnny Truant live in a world where they experience the unknown representation of what causes fear within them. They walk along the line where light and darkness is completely blurred, and if either of them isn't careful, they'll be consumed by it.
* A brief aside on the symbology behind The Pekinese, according to
http://www.pekingese-dogs.net/pekingese-information/history-lore : The Pekenise Breed originated in China. An ancient emperor named Han Ming-Ti experienced a visionary dream that led to his involvment with Bhuddism, which quickly spread to throughout the country. Statues of Lions began popping up everywhere outside public places. Within Bhuddism, the lion is a powerful, prominent creature associated with LIGHT and justice. The problem was that no one knew what a lion looked like, except for the foreigners who shared their tales involving them. Then, it was discovered that dogs could be bred to look like these ferocious animals, and thus, the Pekenise breed was born. The tiny toy breed swiftly became infused with Chinese royalty and was to be treated like a king. However, the breed left the Orient when Allied forces invaded China during the Second Opium Wars, where the dogs were taken as war trophies back to England, where they eventually circulated into mainstream society.
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