the Fackelmann execution, eyes sewn open (pp. 980–981)
the last thing Gately saw was an Oriental bearing down with the held square and he looked into the square and saw clearly a reflection of his own big square pale head with its eyes closing as the floor finally pounced
Context
The scene ends with Gately watching himself go under. Dosed with Talwin-PX, collapsing in Bobby C's arms, he gets "a rotary view of the whole room" and then the final image is his own face — one of the thugs bears down with a big shiny mirror-square, and Gately looks into it and sees "a reflection of his own big square pale head with its eyes closing." The last act of a viewer is to watch his own eyes close, spectation folded all the way back onto the self at the instant of extinction. It rhymes the whole batch's terminus: Fackelmann's eyes forced open, Gately's eyes closing, both witnessed on a reflecting surface — the viewer as final image, watching himself stop watching.