Follow Me and Lets Play Pretend...

Mimicry.

“The discourse of post-Enlightenment English colonialism often speaks in a tongue that is forked, not false” (126). To me, this line sums up mimicry for Bhabha. Mimicry for Bhabha is the idea that dominant societies, such as colonial England, can put pressure on submissive societies to make those societies dependent on the “colonial” for representation and for an identity. While powerful societies don’t lie, they stretch the truth (hence the forked tongue line). Bhabha brings up texts such as The Mimic Men, in which Singh writes “we mimic men of the New World, one unknown corner of it, with all its reminders of the corruption that came so quickly to the new”. Despite all of the new world’s flaws, the third world is a doubling, and still must attempt to replicate what the conqueror views as perfection.

For Benjamin, mimicry is described first as children’s play; how children everywhere mimic each others modes of behavior to explore the different options they have for their futures (ie playing pretend). Mimetic faculty, as Benjamin describes it, is ever changing. The greatest example of mimetic faculty is language, such as how every word is an onomatopoeia.

Edgar and Vicente have an interesting relationship. Edgar is proud of his sexuality, and wants a friend to be proud is his as well. In “THE SECRET” on pages 125- 127, Edgar tells us of his secret between him and Mr. Campos. However, it’s not a secret anymore. He bring Vicente to the janitor closet and has him watch through the key hole. He brings Vicente there as if it is a way to show him that its ok to be gay and have relations with an older man, even if Edgar describes them in a way that makes the reader not feel comfortable. When “Mr. Campos buries his face between Edgar’s legs because only Mr. Campos can feel his own heart beating louder and louder as Edgar raises his feet higher and higher. [...] Edgar thinks it’s a secret Mr. Campos can never tell because it is forever buried in his mouth, alive and young” (126). Edgar is doing this for Mr. Campos, himself, and in this scene, for Vicente as well. Lonely, Edgar wants only to share an intimate moment with someone who feels isolated just as he does. As far as mimicry goes, this is a perfect example of Bhabha’s theory. Although it doesn’t play out in the end, Edgar attempts to have his friend mimic his actions that he views as perfection. We don’t get to hear Edgar’s inner thoughts, purposeful on Linmark’s part. The reader is not supposed to know whether Edgar is happy about sleeping wtih Mr. Campos, just as we are not supposed to know if England is always happy with the corruption and power they stripped from the colonies. However, they still go along with mimetic practices. Just as Edgar does, for selfish reasons in the end. Edgar wants a companion, someone to play pretend with and maybe hopefully sleep with in the end? Someone safer to sleep with than Mr. Campos?