Sunday, March 20, 2005

142. Hugo Strange (notebook entry)

The patients are both resting after a particularly intensive session. Now that their initial resistance has been lowered significantly, they are more open to my techniques. I have proceeded thus far by a highly successful means of systematic deprivation: one by one they have lost their freedom, their clothing, their names, and almost all outward evidence of their masculinity. (I have retained their facial hair for the moment as an ongoing reminder to them of their captivity and their degraded state.)

Before I can proceed with treatment, I must gain further insight into the inner life of the one who was called Bruce Wayne: I must learn firsthand what he experienced when he donned the costume I now wear. I must see for myself the expressions on the faces of strangers who encounter "the Batman," must know the thrill of overpowering them and demonstrating my might.

Only then can I truly know the man behind the mask. Now that I have transformed him, I must become him.