Subject: Re: Awfully Quiet in Here
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliabaader@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Feb 27 2001 - 18:09:50 GMT
--- Paul Kennedy <kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca> wrote:
> OSR: Is THIS the sound of one hand clapping?
Our dear friend Paul brings up the koan which begins NINE STORIES. The
supposed answer to the koan is for the student to wave his hand back and
forth. Someone, and I can't remember where I read this, once suggested
that an astute observer will find that answer in "A Perfect Day for
Bananafish", when Muriel waves her hand back and forth to dry her nail
lacquer.
Now, I've been considering this, and the sound of one hand clapping can
also be something else: a slap. The hand colliding against something,
anyway. Some sort of violent action. So perhaps Seymour's violent
suicide at the end is the other answer to the one hand clapping koan.
It's a thought anyway. (How's that for picking up the ball, PK?
Opening day isn't too far away...)
Regards,
Cecilia.
Oh-- something which always comes to mind when I think of this koan is
one of my favorite poems, by Stevie Smith.
Not Waving but Drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
- Stevie Smith
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