From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney@ungames.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Babbie and Horn: In A Pig's Eye
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 15:56:10 

At 02:35 PM 8/23/00 -0500, Robert Borski wrote:
>Thirdly, when Horn is lying in the pit, he records the following
>observation:
>
>"I kept my eyes closed, knowing that it would be painful to look at the sun.
>It vanished, and I opened them to see what had become of it, and saw
>Babbie's familiar, hairy mask peering at me over the edge of the pit." (195)
>
>I maintain that *mask* is the key word here. 

You may be over-reading. Merriam-Webster gives this for "mask": 

4 a : the head or face of an animal (as a fox or dog) b : an area (as the
one around the eyes) of an animal's face that is distinguished by usually
darker coloring 

While it would certainly be like Wolfe to deliberately code meaning into
that word, it's also a perfect example of Wolfe using precisely the right
word where most authors would use an approximation. 

-- 
   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games 
   kmaroney@ungames.com | (212) 777-1190

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