He wears a mask Ð he pretends to be an idling, strolling observer of others: an amused spectator. He watches people on the street, in shops, in cafes: wherever he finds them he notes their peculiarities and imagines their lives. Like a naturalist with a bone of an unknown creature, he extrapolates and forms an entire animal in his mindÕs eye. It is his joy; it is his defence: he revels in life, so as to ignore death. For its shadow lies over him.