Re: Jerome Jerome

Cameron A Fraser (camif@umich.edu)
Mon, 10 Aug 1998 22:37:24 -0400 (EDT) 

I wasn't going to post this until tomorrow- but I'm not very good at
putting thigs off.

I was walking home one spring-chilly night- home at that time being my
first-year dorm- along the river that ran through campus from the general
direction of the Student Union.  When I was somewhere between the Church
and the "painted-tunnel" (which usually had at least one inspiring thing
written or painted on it) when a clean-cut older man stopped me and asked
for directions to the med school.  Since I was only a first year, I didn't
have exact directions in my head- but did know the general direction-
which happened to be the way I was heading.  So we walked along the river,
under the tunnel, towards EPB, making small talk (which at eighteen I
wasn't very good at- so I suppose a good deal of time was spent in
silence).  Somehow we ended up on the subject of ducks.  Without skipping
a beat or makin an obvious allusion to anything, he inquired if I happened
to know where the ducks went in the winter.  I gave it some serious
thought.  I didn't remember there being any ducks around the campus that
winter or for that matter an absence of ducks either.  Which I did find
kinda odd- because the campus is filled with the obvious presence of ducks
during the summer months (students do tend to end up with stale bread and
microwave popcorn).  I answered that I really didn't know.  

It wasn't until my second year that I got a chance to read CITR- in
Holstein's "Quest" class.  I know it didn't dawn on me when I read the
book- but somtime after- probably in class- it did.  I'm not claiming any
significant insight into Holden- just maybe a little into the cabby.  It
really isn't an obvious question/answer.  You don't realize that the ducks
go south or where ever because you don't see them do it.  You kind of work
from the assumption that they are still there- whether their presents is
there or not.  It is kinda like the Zen-tree thing.  For what it's
worth...

I'd like to add that I've really enjoyed reading all the "bananafishers"
e-mails so far this summer.  As much as I loved Catcher- and I did
concince others to read it- I never got back to reading any other of
Salinger's works until this summer.  I managed to read the rest of the
book-published works in under a week this summer- and am now re-reading
them.  I feel as though (kind of a take off of a Pogues song) the secret
of the universe is hidden in his stories.  But I'm not exactly sure as to
how to go about finding the answers- but I'm enjoying trying.


Cami