When he talks, he favors the Socratic monologue — a series of questions that he poses to himself, then answers, punctuated by "ahhh" and much vigorous nodding.
This evening, Paris prosecutors said he had been committed to a psychiatric hospital outside Paris, because of "the danger he poses to himself and others".
Sometimes, it's as if he's deliberately posing himself problems of musical congruency, such as the assembly of ukulele, oboe, piano, guitar and sleigh bells in "There's Nothing Underwater", or the way the stalking bass and tiptoeing pizzicato strings of "Faculty of Fears" are relieved by chummy country-pop chording.
At one point in what became an unconventional, free-wheeling exchange with reporters, he seemed even to pose himself questions so he could rebut criticism.
Here he poses mischievously as himself in a police van with his 4x5 Speed Graphic camera and flash, using the one technical trick he had ever bothered to learn – a flash bulb to capture his subject against a dark background.
"You could ask from an evolutionary perspective why anyone plays music in the first place," he said, although in fact you have to ask very few questions in conversation with Dr. Marcus because he poses so many himself — then answers them.
"He poses no risk to himself or others due to any psychiatric illness," Dr. Mahler wrote.
He is of course likely to try to defend himself if he is attacked, but that does not mean that he poses a threat to anyone now.
Greg can pose himself as Greg Ginn!
Ms. Stein points out that the founder of bodybuilding, Eugene Sandow, saw himself as a living Greek statue to such a degree that when he posed, he covered himself with white powder the better to resemble carved marble.
