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d’Alpuget’s deep awareness of the Eastern concepts of self. The juxtaposition of these two
antagonistic elements in Turtle Beach then becomes a subtle but shocking critique of the
inability of the Western consciousness to get beyond the masks and know itself beyond the
shallow and staged pleasantries it is so used to and which function so well in the modern,
Western world. Depend on Blanche d’Alpuget to make a direct and hard slap in the face of her
paying readership.
10.4. Koch’s Masks
C. J. Koch similarly exploits this metaphor of the effects of the gunas, and focuses on
how they help or hinder the unmasking of the self. His company of characters includes those
who have been ‘brutalised’ in much the same way as d’Alpuget’s characters; others whose
self-awareness is stymied by their layers of masks; some who literally relish in their masks;
and a very few who come to comprehend in at least a limited way, and then act to realise, the
true reality of the unmasked soul. The eclectic approach Koch employs in moulding his
characters and themes from sources as widely apart as Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, and
Hindu philosophy and literature, etc., makes an analysis of his method necessarily a bit chaotic.
For this reason, this topic has already been discussed in previous sections relating Koch with
the Alice in Wonderland books, 1984, the wayang kulit and The Reincarnation of Rama, the
Divine Feminine, and the Bhagavad Gita. This section will complete the look at the specific
masks of his most important characters, excluding those of Billy Kwan and Guy Hamilton
which are covered in the next chapter.
10.4.1. Koch’s ‘Dehumanising Search for Paradise’
Among the most striking similarities one notices in Koch and d’Alpuget’s novels is their
treatment of the theme of ‘brutalisation’ of individuals through the deleterious effects of an
imbalance in the three gunas. Koch condemns the atheistic communists as soulless dogs (YLD,
199), reporting that Aidit, the PKI leader, will ‘be hunted down like an animal, and killed’ after
the failed coup (YLD, 282). Pete Curtis, the successful journalist who cannot step out of the
shadow of Wally O’Sullivan, is transformed by his anger and frustration into an ill-humoured
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