On the cover of this DVD (Thomas & Friends - Percy Takes the Plunge. Dir. David Mitton. DVD. Anchor Bay, 2008.), we see a green train named Percy, smiling at his own reflection, staring up from the surface of the glassy water in front of him. Percy--being a train--is affixed to some tracks, which are leading directly underneath the water. From the way the splash is moving--up and out--we can see the Percy is headed into the lake. Looking down. Smiling.
Is there any doubt what we are seeing?No. There is not. We are seeing a train commit suicide.
Admittedly, the misery and nihilism of this image (marketed to children, keep in mind) is bottomless, but let's try to examine it to the best of our abilities. Perhaps there is some more innocent explanation for what we are seeing. It is possible that--yes!--Percy is not committing suicide at all! Maybe the lake needs to be traversed (for the benefit of some children or orphans, perhaps, or perhaps more realistically, some factory bosses who need their raw materials--steel and machine parts and whatnot--delivered post haste lest production slow and jobs must be cut to compensate) and Percy is the only one with the guts to go through with it. This is possible, isn't it?
I'm afraid an objective analysis forces us to discard with this sloppy theory outright. A train could not survive being totally submerged in water. Its engines would flood and its mechanical pieces would lock up (and that is if we suspend our disbelief enough to allow that a train can run without humans at the controls--because they would surely be drowned). Once Percy hits the bottom of that lake, there is no coming up, unless he becomes dislodged and floats to the top. Dead, naturally. At best, what we are seeing is a foolish, futile shot at some kind of misguided heroism that will end in Percy's untimely death.
But maybe, we think, something more nefarious is going on. Because why should Percy be smiling as he goes under, if he knows he is putting himself in mortal danger? Even if--in his mind--he is exerting himself and putting himself in danger for the good of others, one would not expect a smile. Do our brave soldiers smile dumbly when they're throwing themselves on a grenade? Does the firefighter running into a burning building that is about to collapse in the hope of saving just one more person do so with a tight, blank smile on his face? Of course not. He does so without thought, and for their sacrifices, we are forever indebted. Something very different is happening here to Percy. Why the smile? Clearly based on the grade of descent from the shore into the lake, he is descending into a body of water that gets very deep very quickly. Maybe he was told that it would be a simple dip, and that he would be on the other side and back above water in no time? Perhaps what we are seeing is the first cold dagger of realization stabbing (or, perhaps, "plunging") itself into Percy's heart as he realizes--here comes death, and there is no coming back, and I hope everyone remembers me fondly.
But no. Percy was not deceived. He knows exactly what awaits him at the bottom of that lake. We can see it in his eyes. His eyes--ecstatic, yet sad; anxious, yet ignorant; expectant, yet terrified--they hold the deep and disturbing feeling of this image.
This suicide is what Percy has been planning for--no, dreaming of--for as long as he can remember. What precipitated this? Unresolved parental issues? The teasing of his friends for his girlish name? The stifling confinement of living one's entire life upon tracks, one's every movement subject to the whims of conductors and engineers? Perhaps all of those; perhaps none. We do not know the answer (watching the DVD might provide an answer, but we are too afraid to risk falling into the same existential hopelessness as our old friend Percy). The intent is now irrelevant, because what we see before us is the execution.
Look deep into Percy's eyes. The irises gone. The pupils swelled to the size of platters. Just the slightest, smallest twinkle. And the smile, pushing up those big meaty cheeks. He knows that eternal quiescence is just a few short yards away. Drowning is easy, Percy is thinking. Hold your breath and oxygen deprivation is like one final light-headed high, and you won't even feel the water filling your lungs.
But perhaps the focus on the eyes is merely a charade to distract us from the bleak hopelessness of the eyebrows (please, brace yourself, but unfortunately, clicking on the above image for a larger view is necessary for our analysis). No, the eyes are just a small part of the horror. The eyebrows--they tell the real story. Who can fail to read the unexpected regret on Percy's face as the cold water begins climbing up his steel frame? The sudden realization that--oh shit, this isn't just a fantasy anymore, to keep us from crying in bed when I want nothing more than to not wake up the next morning so I don't have to face this, this is for fucking real this time! What is he doing? He had no way of knowing until the first cold droplets fell on his face. He is ending his life.
Does this image not look more natural?
Yes. Here, the mouth--further from the brain, perhaps, and slower to receive the message that something majorly fucked up is going on right here--has finally caught up to the eyebrows. Perhaps this is what the film itself looks like, just a few frames after what we see here on the cover. This is the truth behind that smile, which fools no one, least of all Percy himself who, we must remember in the depths of our own despair, is the one actually doing the dying. We are the lucky ones--witnesses to horror, but unharmed witnesses. Pity poor Percy; he knows not what he does.
But even in Percy's disappointment as he stands on the brink of suicide, there is still deeper to go, more despair to uncover. If this suicide is a rebellion--Percy's attempt to exercise one last bit of control over his fate as he dies--it is pointless. Reader, who is almost rooting for Percy in a perverse sort of way, to exercise his will and speed himself towards death, as if it were a kind of choice, do not jump to any "happy" conclusions before examination of the whole of the picture is complete. Percy is still on tracks!
Poor, poor deluded Percy. You who thought your death would be an assertion of your autonomy, a subversion of those who would have you toil forever with no free will of your own. Have you missed the bigger picture? Who laid out those tracks, proceeding through the gentle forest from the station to the lighthouse we see in the background to the place where you will die? Was it you? Please. Your suicide is no subversion! It was preordained! Even the ultimate personal, self-destructed act is not yours! This was their design! Will they shed tears upon news of your death? Or curse you for throwing a wrench into their plans? No. They will build another train--faster, more powerful, less likely to question their authority (and even if it does, so fucking what)--and you will be forgotten. How many other trains have taken this exact path, thinking that this made them unique, and that they would be remembered as heroes, for bucking convention, and what was fated for them? Can we even venture a guess? No, the number is too large. Perhaps this explains the eyebrows. Percy realizes that his death will change nothing. Its only effect will be to hurt the ones he loves.
No comments:
Post a Comment