Suppressed desire story

Kriton Kyrimis kyrimis at cti.gr
Wed Nov 29 08:48:54 CET 2000


Yesterday I reread Barks' story where, invited to a suppressed desire
party, Donald went dressed up as a knight in shining armor, and everyone
kept making fun of him.

This story always disturbed me. *Why* did everyone make fun of Donald for
wanting to be a knight? The only reason I could think would be that they
were being too literal: since it is no longer possible to become a knight,
arriving at the suppressed desire party dressed up as such would indicate
a misunderstanding of the rules of the party. (However, given that most of
the ladies in the party, including Daisy, were dressed up as 19th century
senoritas, like those in "Old California", he wouldn't be the only one.)

Even the ending of the story seems wrong. I would have expected Barks to
start with a story initially praising knighthood, but in the end showing
that there is no such thing any more, rather than the reverse. Could it
be that Barks was poking fun at his own bitter attitude?

	Kriton	(e-mail: kyrimis at cti.gr)
	      	(WWW:    http://dias.cti.gr/~kyrimis)
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"I am not a student of human nature.  I am a professor of a far wider academy,
 of which human nature is merely a part."
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