Re: Teddy
AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Fri, 02 Jan 1998 22:10:33 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 98-01-02 16:00:32 EST, you write:
<< Jim, I guess you are sure but in my reading, there is much more to be
gained by thinking about alternatives than being certain teddy was offed
by his overanxious sister...i see the story as the way the west must try
and balance eastern insights...what teddy provokes in me is much more than
the mystic power of one who knows his own death, but I do also see the
charm in that for others...will
>>
Actually, if we're talking about what the story is About, I'd have to agree
with you. There is a lot more to the story than Teddy being offed, or not
being offed, by his sister (and if he was, I think his sister had merely
intended to be a typical sister pushing a typical brother into a pool that is
typically filled with water, but this time was atypically not). I guess
there's a few level of meanings we're dealing with here--the basic facts (what
happened), and what these facts Mean....
I gotta agree with you about what the facts mean. Teddy's whole thing about
logic and reason being the fruit of the tree of knowledge (a misreading of
Genesis, but that's ok--it's a misreading from a consistently held point of
view--it wasn't knowledge that was forbidden, but knowledge of a particular
subject--good AND evil. If they were already surrounded by perfect good, what
would they need to know evil?) is a very good example of a critique of western
society from an eastern perspective.
Jim