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I like the Salon composite graphic and how it seems to effectively support what I take as Ms. Havrilesky’s thesis re the unfortunate empty posturing and futile machinations of those who lack a sense of authenticity, purpose and mission in their lives.
The canine in foreground sits in his natural skin, without pretense, dignified, and thankfully oblivious to the dog-and-pony-show antics of the donkeys lined up behind him. One of the donkeys rides on another, both forcing smiles to convince their audience just how playful and carefree the lives of beasts of burden can be.
Lined up next to them are five more donkeys, trained to pose unnaturally, one foreleg in front of another, festooned with bright baubles hanging from their ears, and wrapped in the pelts of other creatures that have been killed for them.
Their costumes, in fact, are such that they will win approving and envious glances when the donkeys parade in Churches on Easter Sunday. But not those of the donkeys who display a bit too much of the sexuality that helped buy them their special adornments and status. They will need to cover more flesh before they parade and give thanks in Church.
If the posing and performing donkeys aren’t really fulfilled, then they have some connection to their audience, whose deprivations are more of a material type. Behind the performers appears to be an urban habitat in decay, behind whose bleak walls their audience takes some pathetic hopes or desires from watching what they don’t have. The audience is confronted in their daily lives with the reality that the basic level of resources needed for a sense of security and safety is out of their grasp, unlike the few donkeys with special status. But most will never let go of their beliefs in the ringmasters, and in what they see in the shows, to the contrary. There must be a TV in every home.
