ATDDTA (6): Suburban fears, 165-167

[kelber at mindspring.com]

The elephant sequence reminded me of a joke one of my philosphy professors told:

An Indian mystic sat in a clearing of the forest teaching his disciples:  "All is appearance, nothing more."
At that moment, an elephant charged into the clearing.  The mystic, like everyone else, ran and climbed a tree.
His disciples asked, "If the elephant is nothing but an appearance, why did you run away?"
The mystic smiled and said: "I only appeared to be running."

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Nightingale <isread at btopenworld.com>

>
>The elephant attack appears inconsequential: nothing happens. However, the
>elephant defends its space against intruders. Fleetwood's advice is, "never
>run. Run, you'll get trampled." (167) Running, one confesses, admits guilt,
>liability; that is, one accedes to the territorial demands of the other.
>However, in this "pure land" there are no "competing claims" (166). Nothing
>happens: Fleetwood tells Yitzhak to witness the truth of his claim, and then
>the text cuts from the present to the future ("next week's Bush Gazette"),
>and the subsequent part of the conversation also takes place elsewhere.
>Fleetwood's claim that he grew up thinking "it was a time-honoured principle
>to do nothing for free" might recall the earlier "famed Gratuitous Midday
>Repast" (146).