Babbie and Horn: In A Pig's Eye

Kevin J. Maroney · 23 Aug 2000, 15:56 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Babbie and Horn: In A Pig's Eye
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 15:56:10
Message-ID: <whorl-v0011-0161 at digest.urth.net>
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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 su=
n.
>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." (19=
5)
>
>I maintain that *mask* is the key word here.=20

You may be over-reading. Merriam-Webster gives this for "mask":=20

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=20

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.=20

--=20
   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games=20
   kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190

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