If pursued, Snavely would flee. Since Carol had asked him out, rather than the other way around, and since he was not sexually attracted to her (the five-minute backseat bout notwithstanding), we can hear rapid back-pedaling in his tough talk demeaning her and her friends. No doubt in his heart of hearts our boy so yearned for feminine attention that a strong front was required to repel unwelcome advances.

We cannot tell from the context whether Snavely's perception of the sisterhood's animus toward him was paranoid. In hypersensitivity to his self-awarded lack of sexual prowess had he signaled the ladies that he was indeed preoccupied with matters priapic? In the newly minted year of 1960 (or any year) what boy his age was not?

In any case, we need only look at a representative drawing from this period to see that Snavely's smoldering anger was building. Anger at what? (1) At his complete enslavement to the feminine principle as embodied by the girls in his class? (2) At the nightly defeat of his continuing resolution to refrain from easing himself masturbatorily into the the arms of Morpheus? (3) At the routine insult confining him daily for six hours to a school desk (palliated only by the presence of the aforementioned female classmates)?

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