Number Six is certainly a man of many parts. Able to take care of himself, he gives as good as he gets in any one-to-one fist fight, and invariably gives better.
He's a sportsman, at shooting with an average of 90%, and fencing "These foils have all a length." Excels at "Kosho," some oriental sport originated by Patrick McGoohan. He water skis, builds his own private gymnasium somewhere in the woods. "Modern art," No.6 explains "Is basically primitive, I've made my own tools." Stone axe and chisel, with a wooden rolling pin as a mallet! He is cultured, enjoys classical music. Has a good grasp of classical literature and is able to quote from Goethe, Shakespeare, and Cervantes.
He can fell a tree, and carve the hull of a boat out of the trunk. Explain an abstract work of art, which doesn't mean anything at all. Or perhaps the barrier is down, depending on how you look at it. But then why the cross piece? Well that's a spar for the sail of the boat! Then at another time, chopping down small trees, lashing them together with empty oil drums in order to make a sea going raft. All this, without a sign of calluses on his hands after so much manual work! Spending 25 days at sea, with only 4 hours sleep out of each twenty four "Remarkable!"
No.6 is good at navigation too, navigating along the coast in the Baltic. Sailing across one of the most violent sea's in the world..... the Bay of Biscay , as he would have sailed through 60 foot waves!
Hypnotism is another of the Prisoners facets, in the way he hypnotised No.86 in A Change of Mind. And at some point a short time before the episode of The Schizoid Man, No.6 found someone he was simpatico with, Alison-No.24.
He has superhuman will power, as the doctor-No.22 noted. He's not at all conventional, sometimes I think he's not human, as No.2 once commented!
Be seeing you.
Perhaps that's why they cut the triquetrum scene out of "Chimes of Big Ben" : it might be stretching plausibility that he could do all the things you've mentioned here AND build a triquetrum !
ReplyDeleteBe seeing you
ZM72
As much as I love The Prisoner there were times watching the series where I wished that Number Six had been a bit more of an 'everyman' and less of a superman.
ReplyDeleteHello ZM72,
ReplyDeleteWell if nothing else 'the Prisoner' is certainly educational. Because before the discovery of the first cut of 'The Chimes of Big Ben,' I had never heard of a Triquetrum!
Regards
David
Be seeing you
Hello Number Forty-two,
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you.
Very nicely put. Certainly it would have been better if No.6 showed a few human frailties.
Regards
David
BCNU
I'm about the same age as Number 6 and looking again at his accomplishments, seeing if we've done anything similar. I've read "Hamlet" a couple of times, and seen it performed more than once. And I've put together a bit of flat pack furniture. I think that's pretty much it.
ReplyDeleteZM72
Hello ZM72,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your comment, it was very nicely put. There is a phrase used by Professor Parkin in the televison adaptation of M.R. James ghost story 'Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You My Lad,' "One hundred and one things a boy can do." Well that phrase certainly applies to Number Six!
Best Wishes
David
BCNU