The Face of Another - Kobo Abe [21]
What do you think? I’ve hit the nail on the head, I believe. I seem to remember your saying you used to be nicknamed “saint” during your school days. The first time I heard that, I broke out laughing. But … what was so funny? I seemed to have had a very wrong idea either about saints or about you. Of course, judging only from the outside, I suppose you could even be said to have very individual, sensuous features. Yet, considering the inside, too, you did indeed have the face of a saint, according to Boulan’s classification. An outgoing and peaceable disposition is like a three-foot wall of crude rubber. Infinitely pliant, but inviolable. Such a face does have the half-closed eyes and the faint smile of a saintly image, it’s true, but those very elements compose the features of someone who wins without weapons. When I looked at you from a distance you would smile invitingly, but when I approached, the smile would change into mist and obstruct my view. I should like now to express my heartfelt respect for the one who invented your nickname—“saint.”
Was it sarcasm? I wonder. If there was a thorn in it somewhere, it was surely my fault alone, not yours. It may be that someone else’s tenderness can be experienced only as pain.
Well, next, my face…. No, let it go. There’s nothing to be gained at this point by discussing a face that’s completely gone. How should one consider those whose faces are so completely transformed that they do not fit into any classification, like, for example, the Tazarawa tribe with their huge, saucer-like lips? I should like to hear what Boulan would have to say about that.
And, as I had expected, my fingers were considerably more successful than my head alone would have been. As a result of my brief tests on each of the four basic types over a period of about ten days, I had decided to eliminate two of them, and then choose which of the remaining two would be the better.
The one I disqualified first was type four—slight frontal projection; centering around the nose. This type of face had the area of highest density of factors enveloped by fatty layers, so it was highly stable and, once completed, would be quite devoid of expression. I would be obliged to plan the work all the more carefully from the beginning, and the construction would be quite troublesome. I decided to shelve it for the time being. EXCURSUS TO AN EXCURSUS: In the excursus just before this account I may have appeared to have something in the back of my mind, but I positively intended only one meaning. For, to begin with, there was a time lapse of about three months between the text and the excursus.…
Next to be disqualified was number one, the concave, bony type—a strong projection of the flesh in the forehead, cheeks, and chin. From the standpoint of Jungian psychology it had, in short, an introverted, antagonistic character, and was unstable to boot. At best, that type was the face of a usurer who had never lost a penny. It couldn’t be the mask of a seducer. Though this was merely an impression, the type did not appeal to me and I decided to drop it.
Having disposed of two in this fashion I now come to the remaining two.…
“A slight swelling of the fatty tissue in forehead, cheeks, and chin.…” According to Jungian psychology, this would be an introspective, self-controlled, peaceable face.
“Sharply pointed face, centering around the nose.…” According to Jungian psychology, this would be an ambitious face, capable of action, or a hostile, extroverted one.
I had the feeling I could foresee the future. There was a big difference in choosing between types four and two. Four was not simply two times two but contained