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Second Banan a
NMB, Florida September 11, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
SECOND BANANA
I think it is a given that every hero has a second banana. That term came
from the straight man in comedies. The comedian needs someone to play off
of. The hero needs - say like the Lone Ranger - a Tonto. Every Laurel
needs a Hardy. Every Mutt needs a Jeff. For those of you too young to
understand these icons of past times are the classic pair (another ancient
example) the schlemiel and the schlimazel. One is the hapless guy who has a
bowl of hot soup and the other is the one who gets it in his lap.
Be that as it may, I was lucky to take the risk and go out on my bike for
the first time in a long time. It didn't rain as it was predicted and the
clouds kept the sun at bay after a launching before sunrise. I was hankering
after another dose of professorial analysis of where our notions of romantic
love come from. My lady professor had gotten her second wind (the tapes
come in two boxed sets) and was expounding on the story of Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight. King Arthur was in the story but mentioned only in
passing. The round table and a bunch of great guys are in the background.
Now, apart from all the literary nit-picking, the story of the Green Knight
and Gawain is about two different kinds of knights and two different
approaches to dealing with the blandishments of the wife of one of them.
Gawain is the quintessential unmarried man about town, bon vivant,
courageous beyond belief and dumb about the dance involved when cuckolding
is the game. He is the second banana. The Green knight's wife is the
aggressive one. She flirts outrageously and tests the resolve of Gawain who
resists in an un-manly fashion. All he gets out of it is kisses and his
head symbolically cut off (imagine another part) by the curiously un-jealous
husband - they are now a threesome.
Now, romantic love today is thought of differently from the previous
paragraph's depiction- but is it really so different? Many couples do not
couple after a while for they grow up differently and at different times and
look for something new. I think it is usual for one of the two to be more
aggressive and there are a lot of hungry thirds out there to complete the
trio. What do you think? Carol's Evaluation: 9.5 out of 10.
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