Topical Guide 118
Mark Dorset
Rowboat, Drifting in, as Metaphor for Existential Crisis
The very last Happy and Hapless cartoon that was shown at the Babbington Theater is the one that remains sharpest in my memory.
After a number of mishaps and close calls, Hapless, in his chubby-man incarnation, found himself in a rowboat, rowing across a gray bay. A storm was coming up. Already the bay was choppy, and Hapless was struggling to row into the wind. He was having a terrible time of it, and his expression showed the strain that he was under.Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
For “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay,” try substituting “Driftin’ in a boat on the bay.”
God, the Gods, Fate, the Fates: Callousness and Cruelty of
Over the sound of the wind and the waves, we began to hear Happy’s chuckling, building gradually, coming as if from behind all of us kids, as if Happy were sitting up in the balcony somewhere, where the bigger kids sat to neck and smoke.
Poor Hapless began to hear it too, and he turned toward us, stopped rowing, and looked at us with a sadness that we didn’t recognize from earlier episodes.Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
GLOUCESTER:
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1
God, the Gods, Fate, the Fates: Rebellion Against
Hapless just sat there, drifting, looking out at us with misery in his eyes while Happy’s chuckle filled the theater.
Finally, Hapless spoke. “I don’t want to do this any more,” he said. The sadness in his voice was bottomless. …
On the screen, the wind suddenly died, and the bay was calm, though the sky was still dark. Hapless sat in the rowboat, drifting. “I don’t want to do this any more,” he repeated, and right before the bulging eyes of a hundred kids, he and his rowboat began to melt into the water of the bay.
It took only a few seconds, I suppose, for Hapless to disperse himself. The water lay there, undulating slowly, under a featureless gray sky.
Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
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You’ll find an overview of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It’s a pdf document.