Volume 2. Chapter 8. Animation

Feeling

Out of the pain that no one else can feel is disappointment evident in his face.

Character

He has a face that no one would choose but it becomes him.

Parts in relation to the whole

He carries the baggage of many years on his back. Without this weight he would be a different man, still unhappy, but without anything to complain about.

Dog eats cat

This dog’s jaws are bigger than ever. The cat he chews is as thin as a wire.

Mutual affection

Like eyes eye alike. Nose to nose, ear to ear, facing faces overlap.

Product

He’s a product of his environment That is, he’s screwed.

Degrees of movement

Owls can turn their heads 270 degrees, but you gotta love that opposable thumb and mental agility easily exceeds anything the most flexible cat can manage.

Empathy

They face their own face and fail to recognize it. None of them will ever be so wrinkled, or stinky, or stooped. None of them in the crowd is as nameless as the others.

Omphalocentric

She finds what she looks for after considerable contortion. The jewel of her identity shines for no one else to see.

Lust

He sees in his beloved’s eyes a reflection of his fantasies. He never would describe or even mention his desires, but the casual observer can easily guess them.

Motivation

He didn’t know where his fears came from, whether from a memory of trauma or some kind of conditioned reflex. A study of nerve signals of a pianist showed signals didn’t reach the brain but ended at the spinal column. A friend once gleefully attributed his impulses to his reptile brain. He only wanted to understand himself.

Paranoia

Everyone’s following him, recording his private conversations, and taking photos of him using high-power cameras. They pretend to be friends or innocent bystanders. They try to disguise themselves, but he sees through their masquerades. He’s no dummy. Even his so-called friends turn out to be villains, so they certainly can’t dissuade him.

Biological processes

He enjoyed thinking he was only a head sitting on a squash-like neck. He knew that arms and legs were attached somehow, and he knew that whatever he ate was eventually eliminated below, but he didn’t enjoy thinking of the articulations of his appendages or the biology of his nether regions. The only thing in the bathroom mirror that he focused on was his face.

Figure

When she was young, her figure was like a violin. She didn’t need a corset to realize a narrow waist. Her attractiveness wasn’t forced; her self-esteem wasn’t dependent on artificial support. Only in middle age did she realize the foolishness of putting her trust and hopes in things that never last.

Bad dreams

In dreams of being helpless and naked, large faces with disarrayed features loom. No degree of alarm will awaken us.

Diamonia

The devil in her outlines a painful and contorted path. We see neither the start or end of it. Being incomplete dominates her figure.

Promises

The reassurances of a madman or the mad ravings of a priest promise never to destroy again if certain demands are met. In the darkness, a sane person may see the monsters of a psychotic, but these dissolve like tule fog when the warm sun shines brightly.

Body language

You may not approve, but a body has a face. It sees, it smells, it smiles, and it communicates.

Creator

Here is a self portrait with wings. We have shaped our ample body like a beetle whose elytra and wings fly like coat tails or the tail of a kite. We are pink like spring or a newborn child. Our arms are raised to show we care.

Mask

We know the actor wears a mask, but his sincerity, nevertheless, convinced us.

Hummingbird

A hummingbird appears beyond the window screen composed of tiny squares of feather, beak, and blur.