Peculiarities and Particularities: The Issue of Bodies

Abstract

Nine-year-old Franklin has had only a few quality hours of sleep and is now sitting on the couch before breakfast. He has a straw in his left hand and is flicking it between the index finger and thumb of his right. Every few minutes he stops flicking and shakes the straw with his left hand. He then pulls it up close to his right eye and tilts his head ever so slowly to the left. The corner of his right eye makes a perfect diagonal with his left shoulder and it seems as though all of the possible intensity, energy, and muster in his body shoots out through that corner, sharpening its focus on the straw as its movement glimmers in the light of the wee hours of the morning. He sits on the couch like this for about 30 minutes while Julia showers and dresses; Nathan has already left for an early construction job. Occasionally he rocks back and forth and emits a long, deep, drumming sound that lasts for a few moments. Franklin’s five-year-old brother, Victor, sits on the couch watching TV while filling in a picture of the big red dog in his Clifford coloring book. He pays no attention to the flicks, the tilts, or the sounds.