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kevbone

By kevbone
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olyclimber Experienced

olyclimber

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PrancerRockingHorseAngleBig.jpg

 

We are introduced to a woman who is beautiful and began life with wonderful advantages and then married for love. This, apparently, was her mistake for things did not go the way they were supposed to. She resented her children although she pretended that this tiny spot in her heart did not harden when they came into the room. Although neighbors and friends lauded her motherhood, the mother and her children knew she was a sham.

 

The mother, the father, the two girls and the boy lived together in a very nice neighborhood with a kind of style that floated somewhat above their actual means. The father had a job, but it depended on sales and his sales never materialized. Therefore, their social position like their assets floated above their ability to pay for them and there was a constant agony about money.

 

The house itself felt the strains of this agony and constantly whispered, "There must be more money!" The whisper rippled throughout the house and the children heard it, especially during Christmas where their wonderful presents, a tribute to the expensive tastes and style of their parents sunk gently under the weight of their cost and added to the tributary of whispering throughout the house.

 

One day, Paul, the little boy asked his mother why his parents don't have their own car? He is told that, unfortunately, they are the poorer members of the family. Why? - The boy asks. His beautiful mother then tells him it is because his father has no luck.

 

Luck is what causes money to happen, the boy thinks. Moreover, nobody knows what causes luck except maybe God, but He isn't telling anyone lately. That's what the boy heard, but that isn't what the boy believed. He believed that God ought to tell.

 

So, suddenly the boy declared to his mother. He was lucky. Yes, he was- because God told him he was. However, he could see that she did not think it was so and he became angry.

 

Therefore, Paul went on a quest for luck. He had to hunt it so he hunted it on the majestic rocking-horse in his nursery. He charged onto space on his magical steed and looked all over the universe for luck. Sometimes he would climb off of it, pause, and look into its big glass eye and demand, yes, demand- that it takes him to the place where luck could be found. He rode his horse vigorously, persistently, madly and did not stop even when his sister Joan and his nurse complained.

 

One day, his Uncle Oscar and his mother came into the room when he was riding. His uncle cried out to him- you, young jockey- are you riding a winner? When he was finished riding, he told them he got to the place all right. Moreover, what was his horse's name? Therefore, Paul told his uncle he had many names and one of them was "Sansovino." Well, his Uncle recognized that name because that horse had won in the Ascot.

 

His mother told him that he knew that name because he was always talking to young Bassett, the gardener, about the races. Uncle Oscar then asked him if Paul ever wagered on the races. Bassett told him to ask Paul himself.

 

Later, Paul tells his Uncle that Daffodil, not a favorite of his Uncle, will win at the Lincoln, another horse race. Paul swears his uncle to secrecy and tells him that Bassett is his partner. When Bassett lent him his first money, he lost. However, when his uncle gave him ten shillings, he won. Therefore, he thought that his uncle might be lucky and could be included in the agreement. The boy told him he was betting three hundred and that Bassett was keeping it for him. Of course, he was keeping at least twenty pounds in reserve.

 

Therefore, his uncle took him to the race. He bet on another horse but put five on Daffodil for his nephew. Daffodil, indeed, wins and it looks as though he now has fifteen hundred and another twenty from his uncle. When he's sure, it's as if he "gets it from heaven."

 

The uncle takes both of them into the park so they could talk. Most of the time, if Paul is certain, they win. Bassett thinks the uncle should go in as partners. He isn't sure, yet, because first he must see the money. Bassett then brings him the fifteen hundred pounds from the garden house where he keeps it. The reserve is left with the Turf commission.

 

There isn't much left to say so Uncle Oscar becomes a full partner. When the Leger races came, Paul chose Lively Spark and, at ten-to-one, they all made a killing. This makes his uncle a bit nervous. He tells his uncle how he started this for his mother- and to keep the house from whispering. He wants to tell his mother, but he doesn't want her to know how lucky he is or she will stop him. Therefore, the uncle figures out a way for them to give money to the mother in secret- a thousand dollars a year for five years.

 

Meanwhile, his mother had been trying her hand at commercial art. By helping her friend she could make some money but not nearly as much as her friend to whom she was contracted. She was competitive with her friend and this took a lot of the joy out of it.

 

Finally, during breakfast, she reads the letter from the lawyer announcing the money. However, instead of being happy, she puts on a hard, cold look. It turns out she went to the lawyer and tried to bargain for all of the money. Paul concedes secretly to his mother's wishes. After all, there is some left to get a lot more.

 

Nevertheless, when the money was transferred, a funny thing happened. The house expanded its cries for money- as new furnishings appeared, a guaranteed attendance at Eton, flowers in the winter. It wanted more and more money and the cries frightened the small boy and he began to lose his certainty. He loses at the Grand National. He loses at the Lincoln. He has become stressed and anxious and is crying out to win at the Derby. His mother begs him to go to the Seaside to rest. There has been a lot of gambling in their family and she is concerned about it. However, he doesn't want to leave the house until after the Derby.

 

She relents, thinking that he just loves the house. However, it is not the house he wants to stay for- it's his rocking-horse in his bedroom. His mother doesn't like it. She thinks he is too big for it. He insists he must have it until he can have a real horse.

 

As the Derby approaches, his mother grows nervous about him as she watches his mounting anxiety. She is scared for him. Once, she leaves a party to telephone home, to check on her children, particularly Paul.

 

When she and her husband go home, she goes upstairs. She hears a strange noise from the bedroom, one she cannot completely recognize. She then enters and sees Paul. He has been riding his rocking-horse in the dark. He screams out, "Malabar!"- In a strange voice, chilling her, scaring her, he falls off the horse, crashing to the ground.

 

He is fevered, in a delirium, crying out the name of "Malabar," one of the horses running in the Derby. His mother was frantic for him. His eyes became blue stones as he tossed back and forth in his bed. Bassett says he could come up. The mother, eager for someone to help, agrees. He leans besides the bed and tells Paul that he's made over seventy thousand pounds and he now has over eighty thousands. Paul, delirious, awakens. Am I not lucky mother? - He says. He never told her, but if he rides his horse, he gets to the lucky place. No, she was never told. Then the boy dies in the night.

 

The uncle says a curious thing. He says to the mother that she's eighty thousand ahead and one son behind. Perhaps it is better, because the poor boy had to ride "a rocking-horse to find a winner."

olyclimber Experienced

olyclimber

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W. D. Snodgrass offered a Freudian interpretation of the story in The Hudson Review in 1958. His interpretation hinged on the resemblance of "luck" to "lucre", and the vaguer resemblance of both to "love." Snodgrass argued that Paul's desire "to be lucky" represents an oedipal desire to replace his father in his mother's life.

StevenSeagal Gumby

StevenSeagal

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Posted
W. D. Snodgrass offered a Freudian interpretation of the story in The Hudson Review in 1958. His interpretation hinged on the resemblance of "luck" to "lucre", and the vaguer resemblance of both to "love." Snodgrass argued that Paul's desire "to be lucky" represents an oedipal desire to replace his father in his mother's life.

 

Fascinating. So, if I understand this correctly, kevbone wants Eddie Van Halen to replace his mother?

  • 3 weeks later...

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