Confessions of a Mask

Confessions of a Mask is the precise analysis of a youth estranged from reality. From the start Kochan is isolated from the very concept of normality. His overbearing grandmother shields him from the social company of other children and forces him into a world of introspection and bookish over-analysis and melodrama. His frailty torments his self-image and fills him with a hatred for himself and his body. His sexuality, rooted so deeply in his own self-image and, in all likelihood, a mysogny born from his grandmother, is treated like deepest crime hidden beneath the Mask.

But the Mask and Kochan are markedly different in how they view the world. To the Mask his sexual desire is shameful and secretive, whilst in the temple of his mind Kochan explores himself with a feverish enjoyment.

“...surely at that time I would be able to do it. Surely normality would burst into flames within me like a divine revelation.”

“This was the first time I used my love for Sonoko as a justification for my true feelings.”