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Danse Macabre :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 301 из 359Lips twitching into the semblance of a smile, he walked over to the couch and sat down beside her, instantly sorry that he had.
She sniffed. "Mmmmm, you smell nice," she said . . . "You look nice," he said. "Beautiful.” "Beautiful!" She scoffed. "Not me.” He leaned over abruptly and kissed her warm throat. She raised her left hand and stroked his cheek slowly.
"So nice and smooth," she murmured.
He swallowed . . . was she actually talking to him as if he were a boy?
And a few minutes later: He let breath trickle slowly from his nostrils.
"I guess it . . . would be rather grotesque anyway . . . . It'd be like . . .” "Honey, please." She wouldn't let him finish. "You're making it worse than it is.” "Look at me," he said. "How much worse can it get?” Later on, in another flashback, we see Scott as voyeur, spying on the babysitter Louise has hired to care for Beth. In a series of comic-horrible scenes, Scott turns the pimply, overweight babysitter into a kind of masterbatory dream goddess. In his doubling back to powerless early adolescence, Matheson is able to show us just how much of the sexual magic Scott has lost.
But at a carnival some weeks later-Scott is a foot and a half tall at this point-he meets Clarice, a sideshow midget. And in his encounter with Clarice, we have our clearest indication of Matheson's belief that the lost magic can be found again; that the magic exists on many levels and thus becomes the unifying force that makes macrocosm and microcosm one and the same. When he first meets Clarice, Scott is a bit taller than she, and in her trailer he finds a world which is once more in perspective. It is an environment where he can reassert his own power: Breath stopped. It was his world, his very own world-chairs and a couch he could sit on without being engulfed; tables he could stand beside and reach across instead of walk under; lamps he could switch on and off, not stand futilely beneath as if they were trees.
And-almost needless to relate-he also rediscovers the sexual magic with Clarice in an episode which is both pathetic and touching. We understand he will lose this magic as well, sinking away from Clarice's level until she is also a giant to him, and while these episodes are somewhat softened by the flashback form, the point is nevertheless made: what can be found once can be found again, and the incident of Clarice most clearly justifies the novel's odd but strangely powerful ending: ` . . . he thought: If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence . . . Scott Carey ran into his new world, searching.” Not, we devoutly hope, to be eaten by the first garden slug or amoeba to cross his path.
She sniffed. "Mmmmm, you smell nice," she said . . . "You look nice," he said. "Beautiful.” "Beautiful!" She scoffed. "Not me.” He leaned over abruptly and kissed her warm throat. She raised her left hand and stroked his cheek slowly.
"So nice and smooth," she murmured.
He swallowed . . . was she actually talking to him as if he were a boy?
And a few minutes later: He let breath trickle slowly from his nostrils.
"I guess it . . . would be rather grotesque anyway . . . . It'd be like . . .” "Honey, please." She wouldn't let him finish. "You're making it worse than it is.” "Look at me," he said. "How much worse can it get?” Later on, in another flashback, we see Scott as voyeur, spying on the babysitter Louise has hired to care for Beth. In a series of comic-horrible scenes, Scott turns the pimply, overweight babysitter into a kind of masterbatory dream goddess. In his doubling back to powerless early adolescence, Matheson is able to show us just how much of the sexual magic Scott has lost.
But at a carnival some weeks later-Scott is a foot and a half tall at this point-he meets Clarice, a sideshow midget. And in his encounter with Clarice, we have our clearest indication of Matheson's belief that the lost magic can be found again; that the magic exists on many levels and thus becomes the unifying force that makes macrocosm and microcosm one and the same. When he first meets Clarice, Scott is a bit taller than she, and in her trailer he finds a world which is once more in perspective. It is an environment where he can reassert his own power: Breath stopped. It was his world, his very own world-chairs and a couch he could sit on without being engulfed; tables he could stand beside and reach across instead of walk under; lamps he could switch on and off, not stand futilely beneath as if they were trees.
And-almost needless to relate-he also rediscovers the sexual magic with Clarice in an episode which is both pathetic and touching. We understand he will lose this magic as well, sinking away from Clarice's level until she is also a giant to him, and while these episodes are somewhat softened by the flashback form, the point is nevertheless made: what can be found once can be found again, and the incident of Clarice most clearly justifies the novel's odd but strangely powerful ending: ` . . . he thought: If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence . . . Scott Carey ran into his new world, searching.” Not, we devoutly hope, to be eaten by the first garden slug or amoeba to cross his path.