The function of either member of the pair on their home turf is could be seen either as somehow to validate the other, or molify his own people (granted these terms are a little far of the mark). He has, then, the ambiguous role of revealing, masking, or transforming the other. In a way, the idea that he is a mask seems the most apt, since the stranger is required to "wear" -- or be accompanied by his partner in order either to be, in this way, at once seen and rendered invisible. While I like the "attachment" thing about attaché, the word needs to be embued with this sense of paradoxical representation.

Last edited by inselpeter; 01/11/2006 2:24 AM.