Thank you for the lovely heading and the introduction here. We welcome all of you folks, animal lovers or not.

The BESTIARYpurported to describe all the animals in creation, real or imaginary, and the human traits they exemplify. Often illustrated, these tales inspired the animal symbolism found in architecture, painting and sculptures.

Our tale (tail) takes us from A toZ in the animal world as we examine and reflect on man and beast.

I will be away for a few days, enjoying my grandkids but will return Tuesday evening. Unfortunately I shall be skippping out on Thursday AM for a planned golf trip with 18 couples- to return once again on Sunday.

Please, feel free to kick this bestiary issue (not literally) around and see what we can come up with. I need all the help I can get with understanding animals. I've yet to fully comprehend man.

Well alrighty then, Joan P. is here .

Men, animals, whatever- we are all a little cog in the machinery of life as this book so aptly describes. We must let our "animal" instincts become aroused and enjoy the dialogue.

Hi folks, Andrea wrote me to ask if I were still interested in participating in reading and discussing the "Bestiary". This was my reply to her, which she asked me to post here.

Hi Andrea, Yes, I was planning to join in the discussion of A Bestiary. I haven't read the book, but have it ordered from the library. I really have no strong feelings either way, however. I would agree, though, that having only 2-3 participants wouldn't really be worth it. I had suggested to the Book Suggestion Posting that sometime we read the books of Ferrol Sams, but that would be the only suggestion I would have.

Mary

Thank you Mary for your post. We are reviewing the interest in this book and it appears as if it has waned considerably since we voted to read it. We will keep everyone posted as to the outcome.

ALF, I'm still game for discussing this book. I have it on order and hopfully it will arrive in time for the discussion. But I'll be here in any case.

I need to have a discussion on this book. I have read four chapters of it (Asp, Bat, Cat, and Dove) and I am ashamed to admit that while I think they are beautifully written, I don't have a clue as to what the author is trying to say/show/inspire.....

I am missing something, obviously. I've read the back cover, the flaps -- everything possible to figure out what I am supposed to "feel" or "discover."

I am greatly in need of you intelligent readers/writers/psychologists to open this up for me.

Mary says she will be here when she gets the book from the library. Nellie has it on order and Gail has read 3 chapters. What do you want to do folks? The discussion, if we proceed will begin June 1st. Will there be anyone else interested besides 3 of us?

We had some doubts Betty recently whether this would get off the ground or not. As it is now, we've got 5 who are very interested, so that's a quorum and time for us to move on for opening date on June 1st. The best way to get the word out is to post on the boards in whatever discussion you'd like that we are here and would like to hear from those interested.

Thanks for your interest. These little "animals" should spark quite a discussion.

I'm so glad to see Betty Gregory is ready to go. I'm going to be up in Northern CA on June 1 but will be home on June 3. So if you ask for a show of "fingers" who are present and ready to go on June 1, count mine as if they were there, ok?

Ok then we have Gail, Nellie, Betty, Dan and myself. We shall begin on June Oneth!

Betty, your post really intrigued me too - thanks. I'm going to get the book too. I love animals deeply, so this sounds like it's up my alley.

I'll be there, too.

Mary

Well alrighty then, we are growing in leaps and bounds.

Hello! Please count me in for this discussion. I ordered the book second-hand from Amazon.com and it arrived last week. I'm anxious to get started. I'm just now getting the "hang" of how these discussions work, and only today, as I was browsing, found that you needed to know who was interested in this discussion. Keene

Hoooray, Joan P and Keene, from Tx, are going to join us. I am tickled pink. May I ask what prompted each of you to choose this little book based on animals?

Hi! Actually, I'm here because I want to participate in the Fiction Readers Series. We are just finishing Grisham's A PAINTED HOUSE and have had a super discussion. Keene

It is great to have you in this discussion, Keene.

I'm looking forward to beginning the discussion.

Well, let us count our blessings: We have Keene, Joan P., Nellie, Mary Zelle , who is still awaiting th arrrival of her book. We have Evie, Bill, Gail, Sarah and moi. Is everyone here?

Roll call--- drum roll--- everybody is welcome.

There are 226 pages in this small book and each chapter A- Z is short. For our first week I would like to discuss A thru E. I will be leaving on June 26th to go visit my son in New Mexico. We will proceed as planned.

Alf: Where in New Mexico is your son? We'll get to go there, too, but not until September.

Mary

He is in the ugliest sector of NMexico. He lives in Artesia, about 45 miles south of Roswell. There isn't much to see or do in that particular part of the state, other than Carlbad Caverns and we've done that. Once you get outside the 50- 75 miles of that area, in any direction it is spectacular.

I have to agree,it is pretty desolate there. We'll be near the NW corner of the state and in AZ near Canyon de Chelly. I hope you have a good trip in any case.

Mary

I love that part of the state- actually where Michael lives is the only part of the state that is not beautiful. its a contrast of cultures and colors and I love to travel throughout. Enjoy your trip also. I'll get to see my 3 grandsons whom I've not seen in a year and a half.

My copy of the book arrived just half an hour ago, so I am all set for the discussion.

Hi Andy, I shall lurk for awhile at least until I discuss this with Doctor Doolittle........

Hooray, we have Nellie on board. You'll be thru the book by the time we discuss it Nellie.

The IMP is lurking. Come on Clare join in here. Dr. Doolittle's on vacation.

Shucks. I had so many animal questions, too. Oh well I'll just lurk until he gets back or I get the book.

This woman is incorrigible. She will remain if for no other reason than to tantalize me.

You are so right....my friend.

Today we begin this "fable-ous" book by Christina Adam. Read the introduction above and let us discuss how in each story animals invade the mundane existance of humans and vice versa, opening a way into mystery.

Let us stray into the animal kingdom together.

A bestiary is a type of book, popular in the Middle Ages that intended to describe all animals in creation, real or imaginary and the human traits they exemplified. Bestiaries were the source of stories used as Christian allegories for moral and religious instruction. We've all seen illustrations and read tales that inspired animal symbolism used by many painters, architects and sculptors.

A Shall we begin with the ASP? This is a common name of a family of venomous snakes of the cobra family. The asp was worshipped in ancient Egypt and used as a symbol on the crown of the pharaohs.

Arthritic Helena, terrified of snakes encounters one in her house as she enters the kitchen for a refreshing glass of water while gardening. (That would have a tendency to get the adrenaline pumping.) Now she did exactly as most of us would do and that is to back off and shout for help. Stan snaps back "What?" as he shows his fangs. Oh, don't we all know that tone? · Did you know that venom contains a powerful neurotoxin that acts on one's nervous system? · Didn't that stop her short? "His tone knocked the wind out of her. " · "She was trapped in her own house" and yet she felt her anger abate? Why was that? · She was absolutely unafraid when she felt the cool touch of the snake.

Why? Was it the intimacy of it? The more I thought about this story the more questions were raised. It all started in Genesis with a snake.

Oh, Andy, I do know that tone, and how it deflates. How do we get into such a place? The "fangs" (I hadn't thought of that) are not really the problem, are they? It's our own reaction to them!

So the Bestiary was used for moral and religious instruction...uplifting messages? I must confess that I read rather quickly through the first five beasties and came through with a sad feeling for the characters, including myself.

I will go back and read more closely of the redemptive power of this Asp. There must be one... Funny, I think of the Biblical snake as destructive, but this one seems not to have the fangs after all. Will go look again at poor Helen to see why this snake had such a soothing effect on her...

I really need to talk this one out. Good to be here, Andy!

Oh, Andy, I do know that tone, and how it deflates. How do we get into such a place. The "fangs" (I hadn't thought of that) are not really the problem, are they? It's our reaction to them!

So the Bestiary was used for moral and religious instruction...uplifting messages? I must confess that I read reather quickly through the first five beasties and I came through with a sad feeling for the characters, including myself.

I will go back and read more closely of the redemptive power of this ASP. There must be one... Funny, I think of the biblical snake as destructive, but this one seems not to have the fangs after all. Will go look again at poor Helen to see why this snake had such a soothing effect on her...

I really need to talk this one out. Good to be here, Andy!

I have just read the first five vignettes and am thoroughly entranced. Now I need to go back and read in depth.

I am pondering one question at this point. Why did the snake touch her? Living in the southwest as I do, most of my encounters with snakes find the critters slithering away as fast as they can. And yet, snakes love warmth (they bask in the sunlight), so perhaps this snake was reaching out to her in a way that her husband could not. She found the cool touch of the snake very soothing, and yet her husband's reaction to the snake episode very irritating, almost abrasive. Is anyone else picking up on some symbolism here?

Keene

Hehehe the first bit said so much when she described how they lengthened the sound of the word in the school drama - assssssp - now is he or is he not an ass(p) --

All kinds of symbolism is so right on isn't it Keene - she now has 'the knowledge' that she isn't afraid of snakes and like a charmer in a bazar she scoots the green snake out the door.

Interesting that Christians see an asp as symbolic of evil and venom where as to the Egyptian the asp symbolizes the Solar, royalty, domininon and power and to the Greeks the asp symbolized Protective and benevolent power.

Where as the ass to the Egyption symbolizes inert power and evil to the Greek sloth and brutish aspects sacred to some of the Gods and to a Christian not only stupidity, lewdness, patience and a beast of burden it was also used to depict Jews, the Synagogue and has Satanic connotations.

What was an eye opener is how much we want our companion in life to share our wonderment, and take care of us when we are afraid, and to dress a certain way - I have to ask - do we rob each other of our individualiy in the name of intimate togetherness? He certainly inserted his power and was depicted as brutish and stupid - is this the age old picture of Adam that allows him to be the victim to Eve's venomous thoughts as she took benevolent power over the green asp?

Asp. I liked this little story. Here we have two people Helena and Stan, who work together until they retire; and then Stan spends his days at the computer and Helena gardens. The only help Stan gives with the garden is to water it.

These two people are growing apart. And somehow I see the snake as a symbol of Helena's growing independence from Stan; the fact that she finds that when the snake touches her heel, that she is no longer afraid of the snake/snakes, and decides not to share the wonder she felt at the touch, that tells me that she is not afraid to be independent from Stan.

Those are my initial thoughts on the story.

   Did you feel as if these characters have encountered some type of salvation?

This story tells us of something extraordinary in a normally ordinary life with Helen and Stan.
Helen learns something about herself as she feels a braveness that she's never felt before with a snake.  That's an excellent point Nellie and Barb have made.  Perhaps it IS her independence  and autonomy showing.
You can almost feel the tenderness she has for this asp.  I wonder if her tenderness toward the as(S)p of a husband will manifest itself from now on.  tee-hee  When she heard Stan "shuffle" to the study she thought of the snake.

How had she known it wasn't poisonous?  It had the shape of a finger, of an animal's penis.

It was only after her anger at Stan abated that the snake touched her Keene.  At that point she showed him out the door.  m-mmm, speaking of symbolism................
Do you think she herself understood why her anger and her fear were dissolved?

Joan:  Thanks so much for being here with us and you are right, it's not the fangs, it's our reaction.   I too, hurriedly scanned  these short  stories to acquaint myself with them, a month or so ago.  It wasn't until I started to compile questions that I began to realize just how clever our author is with her gentle, probing tales.  The writing is almost poetic with the way in which it flows.

Of a similar nature are the men of this world, who close one ear with earthly desires. The other they block with their deeds.

Asps do no more than merely close their ears. Men/women of this world blind their eyes lest they see heaven and are reminded of kind works and words.

We can return to the ASP anytime you wish folks but let us now examine

B IS FOR BAT

Alf, I loved your last comments. How true, how true! And now, on to "B."

Keene

I just got the book and I'm enchanted with it. I've read the first four vignettes, and the cumulative feel of them together has, for me, a different "feel" than any one of them would by itself. Each one seems like the distillation of a magical moment in someone's life together with a response which is shared...or not shared...by another human being.

Some of the magical moments are compatible with my personality and others are not, but when I think about the impact on me, of the ones I personally relate to, it is plain that each one is a special happening for one of the characters. Magical moments are enhanced when they're shared with someone "simpatico" who gets pleasure from watching our own joy and celebrates the special moment with us...but life doesn't always offer us such undiluted delights.

I, like most of us, have a secret life of experiencing some things that are too lovely to express in words, too sentimental and "schmaltzy" to talk about...and yet those things can produce a yearning, aching feeling in me about the wonder of life and love. I think the author has portrayed one such moment in the lives of each of the main characters of the first four storiettes, and has shared it with us.

To me, the most interesting question is...how many of the moments in each story would I have responded to in an understanding way, if I were the best friend of the main character? Some of the events are so prosaic, so hard to reconcile with their true impact, if they are not part of our own scenario of beauty.

Harriet

What a great discussion! I'm still waiting for the book from the library, but am dying to jump in!!

My first reading of this story produced a lot of symbolism in my head. Helene is planting a garden, the snake appears, the author's last name is Adam, the snake is a phallic symbol? All true, maybe... but I wonder? Maybe the charm of the story lies in picking out the elements each of us may see as significant.

When I looked at the story again, I had a different reaction. I saw an older couple, entrenched in a long-standing marriage. They've retired to a warmer climate. Stan is not interested in gardening, but he cooperates half-heartedly with Helene's garden maintenance even though he doesn't share her enthusiasm. Helene tolerates Stan's passion for isolating himself with his computer. Each of them is tuned-out to the other and their lives are prosaic and separate.

"She had wanted him to come back with her to see the snake, how green and perfect it was and how unexpected, because it was round and of a substance different from the things that belong inside a house."

Now I have to say that for me, a snake could NEVER evoke an image of beauty, but I have to accept that it did that for Helene. Perhaps the cool green scales of the creature, slithering on the cool tiles of the kitchen surprised Helene into an image of the unexpectedness and variety of life. Maybe she was stunned into the realization that life still holds mystery and surprise and an unexpected symmetry. Maybe she yearned to share that feeling with her husband and change their pattern.

Maybe I'm also sympathetic to Stan because I, like he, would have seen the snake as something to dispose of as quickly as possible.

Harriet

Wow Alf - I want to take your post and make a poster for myself of your sentences and Harriet you also blew me away with your thoughts - I need to go back and reread - my reaction was more to the expectations I have placed on others - wanting them to see or hear my inner reactions to the world around me, realizing that I am an individual, as are others, and where I feel the sting of experiencing that feeling of isolation because my concept of intimacy has been tied to sharing similarities rather than realizing that love is not a box or something to hold and with freedom comes individuality.

This may not be a discussion about grown and change and the balance between individual growth seeking/changed behavior that no longer feels supportive in the same way - the inclination to judge the new growth seeking/changed behavior that leads to feeling isolated and maybe even self-righteous but especially feeling annoyed or angry over the sense of loss when our intimates change or, do not live up to our picture of them or, really to our 'need' for them to be a certain way.

Just musing here - but these are my thoughts as I am reading this book - because I am struck also by a feeling, not so much of sadness but the tension reminds me of how I felt watching the movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf - then I wonder if all growth seeking change is really a sandbox of tension for relationships. If so I can see how much easier it could be not to be about the business of inner growth seeking since the change could bring tension to others which forces them to change either toward finding their own power or feeling angry and abandoned.

Still on Asp

JOAN, great point that you brought up about the warnings Helene flouted about snakes. Maybe, just beneath the surface of her own awareness, she needed some change and excitement in her life? Was she ready for new experiences?

If so, Stan caught none of this emotional underplay. He was caught up in the dutiful maintenance of his marriage and relationship with Helene. The tragedy here is the opportunity that was missed by these two. I can't see Stan as a villain despite his casual grumpiness and grunge.

B Is For Bats

I thought Raymond's concern about where the swallows went set the scene for his experience with the bats. I got the feeling that Raymond was a man who valued order in his life and saw beauty in the natural laws and order of nature? He was the type of man who might be disturbed by a gap in his ability to predict the pattern of the birds because that displays DISorder, lack of symmetry in his world? Does that make sense?

Each one of us can have a different concept of beauty or magical moments. And who is to say that, if Raymond's Judith had still been alive, she could have shared the exhilaration he felt when the bats swarmed past him.

Just caught your posts, Barbara. Concerning your reaction to bats: I wonder how many of us could have shared Raymond's story properly when he tried to express his feelings? Love and tenderness are such fragile things and it's hard to read someone else's mind well enough to know when the emotional stakes have suddenly become extraordinarily high because a relationship has reached its crisis point..

Harriet

P.S. some of are afraid of snakes and other's of us are afraid of Bats - flying Bats and Birds in a house are my undoing - in fact flying Bats in or out of the house are my undoing especially in the evening when I am taking a swim and they start to swoop down low - aahhhhhhh - As you must have read by now Austin has the largest Bat colony living under the Congress Ave. Bridge second only to some caves in Mexico.

guaaaaaaaaaaano!

I know that I digress from the discussion here but I keep remembering as a child how my older brother (by 2 years) would taunt and tease me, unmercifully.  I knew (instinctively I guess) that he had a morbid fear of snakes so I bid my time .  Planning revenge, I caught a garter snake, encouraged him to aggravate me and then I chased him thru the yard with it in my hand and put it down his teeshirt.  I swear to you that was the last time he taunted me and although I cringed all the time I was chasing him I loved every moment of his terror.  I won't even go into how much IN character that is for me and I remember it well.

When we moved here into this house 3 years ago Bill was weeding out underneath the windows, behind the shrubs with a broad pronged rake.  He came upon a thick black snake and his fear of snakes spooked him.  He beat the "bee-jeebers" out of that snake to the point of breaking the thick rake prongs.  I laughed until the tears ran down my face-- it was a rubber snake that the guy had lain behind the shrubs to keep the critters away from his flowers.  The snake wasn't damaged one iota, but the rake was trashed.  We all still pick on him about that.
 
 

Welcome Harriet:  I love your comment
I agree it does seem magical with the grace and beauty of these animal stories

The bats wings stretch out across elongated digits resembling the human hand.  The bat is viewed as the villian in many circles such as theatre and there are many misconceptions re. the bat.  I have lost my post that I spent over an hour on but let me tell you I was blown away by this B section.  Lonely and alone our widow agreed to join the biologist whose job it was to "tag the swallows" with a silver band.
Raymond wondered where the birds   went and he was told "Nobody knows."  For thousadns of years folks have been questioning the existence of the "spirit" in much the same way.  Where do people go?  Where is his beloved Judith?  Nobody knows.
We live in a world of scientific wonder and yet these same questions persist and continue to puzzle us.

I believed this story was full of religious metaphors as  Raymond  held his arms out straight and forced himself not to move.

"Movement surrounded him, passing over his bare arms the way air flows over the wing of a plane and holds it in the sky.  "

Like Raymond, so too, do we stand in the wings of time.
His arms outstretched like Jesus on the cross, he wishes Judith were with him to feel a part of the universe he is experiencing.

What was Raymond's secret?  Do you think he even knew it himself?

Like man/like bats
1.  Bats are found in all habitable regions of the earth, from the cold, treeless plains of northern
    Canada to the rich tropical rain forests of Borneo.
2.  Bats favor habitats that provide ample food and adequate roosts.
3.  In most instances, the sexes of adult bats are easily distinguished. Adult males have a
     conspicuous penis, and adult females have an area around the nipples of their breasts where the
     hair has been worn away by nursing young.
4.  Bat wings are supported internally by modified hand bones.
5.  The clawed thumb is free of the wing, and the bat uses the thumb to cling to tree bark or the
     walls and ceiling of its roost.
6.  The faces of bats also vary considerably.  Some bats have large, conspicuous eyes, while others
     may have small beady eyes.
7.  Like most mammals, bats have two sets of teeth. Depending upon the species, newborn bats
     are equipped with as many as 22 milk, or deciduous, teeth. These teeth are soon replaced with
     20 to 28 permanent teeth.  (32 for man).
8.  Bats have been quite successful in diversifying to colonize many different environments.
     To thrive in their varied habitats, bats display a wide range of specialized behaviors.
 

These are only a few of our similarities.  Yikes!  Maybe we didn't evolve from monkeys, maybe we came from the species of bats.

The religious metaphor, I think, is very powerful in the image of Raymond with outstretched arms as the bats flew around him, and not one of them touched or harmed him. It brings up the Biblical axiom that if you will trust, no harm will come to you. Certainly Raymond had to trust in this case despite his fear, and, indeed, no harm came to him. What a power revelation that was to him and that moment brought him great joy.

As an aside about snakes, I was a zoo docent for several years and our group took animals to schools and nursing homes to entertain as well as teach about the habits of various creatures. My job was to demonstrate the King Snake. He and I became great friends. He would wrap himself around my arm, and look out at the audience and I often wondered who was doing the learning, the snake or the students! My fear of snakes has been tempered by my "friendship" with him. On the other hand, if I encounter a rattle snake.....!!!

Keene

A zoo docent? What a great job that must have been. These stories should be right up your alley then Keene.

That's interesting Barb that you mentioned Austin having such a large bat population as I was just reading yesterday in my April National Geographic magazine about researchers who were in a hot air balloon up as high as 5,000 feet,  in search of bats.  It told about the bats "wintering" in  Mexico and migrating to Texas, come spring time.  Doppler radar  tracks this.

I just looked this up from the article-  Although each bat weighs only half an ounce or so, calculations show that a million bats can devour about 10 tons on insects nightly!  I need bats for my lanai.

My thoughts on Bat. I think that this story is about blindness, about not seeing what is obvious. At the start of the story we have the mention of 'blind dates'. Then we learn that no one knows where the swallows go when they migrate south. But certainly there must be people in the place where the birds go who see them and are familiar to them; and I see a blindness on Barry's part in that he seems to see only one way of finding out where the birds go. In the scene where they stand with arms outstretched before the cave, it is near dark, which means sight is diminished.

As the bats fly past without touching him Raymond 'sees' that everything is working with fine precision.

I thought of this blindness theme because of the saying about bats: "As blind as a bat." It was believed, and as far as I know still is, that bats are blind and that is the reason for their use of sonar to find their way around.

Harriet, each story has its moment of beauty and some moments of beauty, such as the flight of bats in the semi-darkness, are not my moments of beauty. The snake in the Asp story was beautiful to me because I do find snakes beautiful.

I'm coming up with the idea in my own mind that the things written in the first paragraphs of each story are important to understanding what the story might mean. So going back to Asp for a moment, I was thinking of that student skit about Cleopatra being bitten and killed by the asp; and that made me think of death. This story is about death and rebirth: when the snake touches Helena -the touch being symbolic of a bite-her old 'afraid of snakes' self dies, and she is reborn as a new person, one who no longer fears snakes.

I am enjoying this discussion.

Nellie:  Yes, Yes yes!  Blindness.  Your take on that is wonderful.  Bravo!
I din't even think about that destitute of "darkness."
Barry, too, was blind in his  indifference, wasn't he?

I don't believe that blind as a bat is a true statement so I checked it out in  Encarta here.

Despite the familiar expression, "blind as a bat," none of these animals are truly sightless. On the contrary, several bats can see better in dim light than do humans. However, only the Megachiroptera can perceive colors.

"Bat," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.<

---

Do you think that Raymond truly visualizes the Divine with his arms outstretched?

I will wait a little bit and then go on to C for Cat and d for our Dove. Where is everybody today?

C IS FOR CAT

Nellie thinks that the opening statements that the author gives us are relevant. What did you think of this first paragraph, Nellie? Jim " stood a little apart" from our protagonist at the bookstore and she felt a subtle shift in his posture. Our insurance couple has come from a small town in Idaho known only for its "earthquakes" to LA on a business trip. ( Idaho? An earthquake in Idaho?) Is this true? After encountering a gypsy with the blackest eyes she'd ever seen, she receives an absurd, nonsensical curled "fortune" from Nostradama (female) the cat of her choosing and returns to their hotel. Upon receiving this message she recalls 1983 and the cat, given to her by her husband, that warned them of an approaching earthquake. I'm told that cats possess excellent memory and exhibit considerable aptitude for learning by observation and experience. This was a kitten--- what experience had she had? Or was it because of the whiskers which are extremely sensitive to the slightest touch, and are used for testing obstacles and sensing changes in the environment? Is this haunting vignette about the cats independence or its/her need to be loved and adored?

It seemed to me that the first kitten alerted her to the earthquake, which was a pivotal potentially life-threatening event 20 years earlier. Now, could it be that another cat is also alerting her to another pivotal potentially life-threatening event? If so, she is going out to meet it head-on.

Did anybody find it interesting that the husband, Jim, was named, but "the wife", the narrator, the heroine, never was.

Mary

I once read something about animals "sensing" atmospheric changes that might precede a natural disaster like an earthquake.

In any event, the cats reminded our heroine of a time when she was "young and so present and intensely alive." The pink paper had been waiting many years to be chosen by the cat. Was it a time trip back into an era when she wasn't always watching Jim to see if he was irritable or impatient with her preferences? She herself still retained a keen pleasure in the variety of things to be seen in the world, but Jim seems more blase.

Was it earthquake weather again...a time for looking and feeling and being more alive? Yes, I agree that she declared a new independence when she went for her walk.

Harriet

Cat: the first paragraph theory seems to go by the wayside, so to speak...until I realized that bookstores and cats often go together; we have bookstores here that have resident cats.

But the story is about two cats that predict excitement for the narrator: the first is the small kitten which senses the coming earthquake and it is during the earthquake that the narrator feels most alive; and the second is the psychic cat which passes on a fortune that promises excitement.

This little story seems to be about coming to life only when the person is closest to losing it or close to the possibility of losing it.

I don't want anyone to miss this story so I will wait until tomorrow so that everyone has a chance to read it. I loved the religious symbolism in this one.

This one had so many religious references, I think I will begin with them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To you, therefore, who have received the wings of a dove; to you who have fled far away, to stay and be at rest in solitude. (Psalms, 55:6)

Waiting for a long time to move away from the hustle-bustle of city life our newly weds enjoy the peace and serenity of their new country home in New Mexico. Unfettered a "nesting Mourning dove" takes up residency with them. Does it appear that our heroine and our mother dove are both fleeing from problems only to encounter more?

Therefore let the dove mourn, let it mourn(see Isaiah, 59:1) I have found references to three doves in the scripture. They are the doves of Noah, David and Jesus Christ. Noah represents peace; David, the mighty hand; Jesus, salvation.

When the dove descended upon Jesus a voice was heard, saying: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matthew, 3:17).

Believe me I am not prostelatizing (sp.) but doesn't this story read like a parable?

I'd be interested in your comments folks.

Wow, Andy - I didn't pick up on any of that. I'll have to go back and reread it. I must admit that biblical references usually escape me.

I got the feeling that she was somewhat disappointed in her new husband, i.e., that maybe the "honeymoon was over". And she was facing the fact that she was cowardly because she wouldn't speak out about something that upset her - either to her husband or to the shooters.

Maybe, though, I'm just taking the story at face value and not looking for hidden meanings.

Mary

I just posted a message and it didn't appear, so here I go again. Don't know what I did wrong.

I, too, like Mary, didn't pick up on the Biblical references in "D," and I was so glad to see your insights, Alf. I guess I need to go back for a second reading.

I saw a theme of "staying power" with the female dove who stayed on her nest despite the danger around her, and the newlywed couple who stayed in their home and could even enjoy it (the last few paragraphs) despite the controvery over the hunting parties.

The disappointment that her husband would not take a stand against the hunters, coupled with her own disappointed that she, too, did not have the strength to take a more firm stand points out problems in many marriages. We want our partners to do what we cannot and will not do and this leads to marital discord, but in the end we realize we are not perfect and neither are others.

I'm still having difficulty picking up on a Biblical theme here. Can anyone enlighten me? Doves play an important part throughout the Bible and are symbols of peace and the spirit. Perhaps the theme is the desire for peace, away from the hustle and bustle of Washngton, D.C.

Keene

Keene... You can delete one if you wish.

I wouldn't have picked up on religious significance either, Alf, but I'm not at all knowledgable on the Bible.

I definitely do see the story as a parable for our time though. The hunters would represent the unreasoning brutality of those who kill for pleasure and have little regard for the sanctity of life. The dove looks like a symbol of peace and innocence to me. The husband, from whom better was expected, is Everyman trying to grope his way through the dilemma of whether or not to pacify dangerous neighbors even though he may be repelled personally by their actions. Both he and the wife have to make compromises with their ideals, but the wife has to adjust to her disappointment in her mate also..

If we put the whole situation on a grander scale, it almost looks like world politics. I read somewhere that politics is the "art of achieving what is possible." Sometimes that means that the world settles for some pretty awful situations.

I loved the way you expressed the relationship between the husband and wife, Joan.

Harriet

I still don't spot the Biblical references even after a second reading.

I do see symbolism. I see the doves as symbols of all the kinds of Peace: the Peace that is the opposite of War; the Peace that is an abscence of loud noises; the Peace that exists in the heart and mind when all is right in the world.

And I see the men with guns as symbols of War, and they destroy Peace by killing the doves, the living symbols of Peace; their booming guns shatter the Peace; and their mere presence with guns in hand ruins the Peace that exists in the heart and mind of those who are caught in the middle. The woman feels anger at the noise and the shooting because when Peace is under attack, I think anger and a desire to attack those who have destroyed Peace, comes uppermost to the mind.

Eventually, the hunters leave and Peace returns. The doves return to live their lives and raise their young. I think that to the doves there is no difference between being hunted by hawks, bobcats, or coyotes and being hunted by men.

Anyways, a few of my wandering thoughts.

Harriet, this is a parable for our time. I think that in a way the woman and her husband represent all those who are caught up in places where there is war and strife.

I am so impressed by all of you. Look at what you've come up with.

---

The dove has two eyes, right and left, signifying, that is, memory and intelligence. With one it foresees things to come; withthe other it weeps over what has been.

The dove has two wings, signifying love of one's neighbour and love of God. One is spread out in compassion to its neighbour, the other is raised in contemplation to God.

Also don't doves mate for life???

I wish I had the kind of mind that could see all kinds of "other" meanings in her vignettes. I honestly am trying, but alas, to me they are just so oblique I can't "get it" without all your insights, and then I wonder.....

I was a tinch irritated at the cat story, because I just couldn't figure out what these two people were doing and where they were doing it. I live near LA. Why were they in LA because they sold insurance. Earthquake insurance? It doesn't say that, but earthquakes play a big part in the story. Also, the weather she described was NOT what we call earthquake weather. Earthquake weather has nothing to do with the temperature but with the stillness. Often in the fall and early spring we have days where EVERYONE says it is earthquake weather -- almost dead-sound days. And lastly, any woman who would go out by herself at night in Los Angeles has to be a native who knows where she can get away with that safely, or crazy. To me it was like Christina didn't know LA at all but placed her people there anyway. If there was a message, I didn't get it.

See. I am way too analytical when it comes to reading stuff, and I know it! But I'm still going to try!

Gail, I'm so happy that you've joined us in the reading of  these vignettes.  I do believe however that you "do get it!"  We all interpret stories differently and thru the reading with my SeniorNet friends I have learned to be more analytical.  I fnot only dig and delve into a story presented, I excavate it.  It is so much fun just being here and reading the differnt opinions.  It's like sitting before a group of knowledgable people and listening to their individual prospectives.

 I think the point in question about the "earthquake" is that our heroine actually felt a shift of her own .  She was to experince an upheavel in her life much as if she were IN an earthquake.  That was my take on the "tremor."

Betty ,  your cat attacking your big toe is hysterical.  Maybe he's foretelling an omen, too.  "Wear your slippers."
 :
The dove symbolizes peace and reconciliation.  Do you feel that that is an issue here with our newly weds?

                                                      E IS FOR emu AND ELEPHANT

May I digress a bit here to say something about doves, white-wings to be exact. We have at least twelve in our back yard every day (in a heavily populated neighborhood, no less) and their behaviour lends a mystery as to why they are symbols of peace. We have several bird feeders and there is war going on around them! The doves flog each other with their wings, scrap over the food, trample our plants, and chase all other bird species away. They are generally nuisances. I just thought I'd throw this into the mix of our discussions. Ha!

Betty, your cat Sam is quite a character. Maybe he doesn't want you to sit down and have a restful moment, but rather he wants you to play with him.

More later on "E."

Keene

The emu is peaceful and timid and capable of running at considerable speed to avoid attackers. The male emu assumes care of the chicks--------------

Her brother has long teased our narrator over her weight and this has left a lasting impression on her self-confidence scale. Weight is an issue with her. "His girlfriends get thinner every year." Their bodies are either ropey and tatooed or excessively round." "The elephants can't come out because they're FAT."

The last sentence in this story tells all, doesn't it? "I think he worries he might find himself alone someday, with only me, the sturdy one to help him find his way back through the trees."

I think even with all of the harassment and teasing he prizes and honors his sister for her great strength. Remember elephants have been trained to CARRY heavy loads and they have long been revered.

Just like this family that we are presented with, elephants are complex social animals and associate in small herds for protection against their predators, who happens to be MAN!

"My brother saunters up as if he's mingling…." These animals may remain together for life, maintaining contact. Perhaps our family will continue these outings forever. The matriarch, the dominant female, leads each elephant family. When threatened the female will either attack or lead the herd in a stampede, in a tight family unit. If they become separated, even for a couple of hours, their reunion is marked by an elaborate greeting ceremony.

In regards to your dove statement, I have not found that to be true here in SW Florida. The wings aren't white on my mourning doves and they are very placid, ground feeding in flocks and taking turns.

I have found various references to the different characteristics:



The first characteristic of the dove is that instead of song it brings forth a lament.
The second, is that it lacks bile;
Tthe third, it likes to kiss;
The fourth, it flies in flocks;
The fifth, it does not live by theft;
The sixth, it gathers better-quality grain;
The seventh, it does not feed on corpses;
the eighth, it nests in holes and in rocks;
The ninth, it rests on flowing water so that if it catches sight of the shadow of a hawk, it can more swiftly avoid its approach;
The tenth, it rears twin chicks.

Love this discussion on doves. Our doves aren't mourning doves. They are white-wings. I think their aggressive behaviour might be due to overpopulation. Here in South Texas it was unheard of to have doves in heavily populated areas several years ago. Now, there are hundreds. The bird seed store owners here think there are possibly one hundred and fifty thousand in this area, and the residents here are constantly finding ways to discourage these doves so as to be able to enjoy the other species of birds.

They are ground feeders and one way that we encourage other birds to enjoy our feeders is to have a little ground-feeding area in which we place food so that the doves go to that area rather than our other feeders. When observing them, however, they still fight each other for the food, flapping wings and flogging each other. We think this behaviour is probably because of overpopulation without predators. Oh, well, on to "E."

Keene

A school is one of the last remaining public buildings in modern America with no air conditioning and no screens in the window. In June, when the weather grew warm, I would open the huuuuge tall windows with a long, old fashioned window pole to air out the room for my first graders.

Our classroom would often be visited then by a pair of mating doves, which delighted the children. The doves were beautiful, but not particularly hygienic, and they had very casual excretory habits. They HAD to go.

I would use the window pole to bluff a threat to them as they perched on top of the children's 8 or 9 foot tall clothing closets. . Undeterred, they would barely stop cooing, and flap to a more rearward location. They were so unafraid that I would have to gently touch them with the tip of the pole. Then, apparently offended, they would fly to the window and watch me. If I resumed teaching, sometimes they would fly right back to their favorite closet perch. The children were ALWAYS on the side of the birds and shrieked with laughter at their antics.

I came to firmly believe in the intelligence and thinking capabilities of those birds, because they ran me a merry chase. There is no one who can convince me that birds are not capable of a form of logical thought.

My war finally ended when the PTA paid to install metal grating in the windows. I kind of missed them after that.

Harriet

Harriet: Did the kids tell you that schoold was "for the birds?'' Chuckle

Awaiting your E comments, I am off on a mission of mercy until this eve.

Hi Alf I'm hear just lurking. Just waiting for the book. You are doing OK

Loved your story on the peristent doves, Harriet. I'm sure you are right about their intelligence. I think we underestimate many animals' intelligence (which makes it easier to hunt them and use them in animal science experiments.)

However, however, I had to adjust my belief that I had taught my cat Sam the word "pocket." I've taught him about 200 words, since books written by animal scientists say that cats have the equivalent of a child's 3 year old brain. With only a verbal cue of "pocket," Sam will come to my shirt pocket to find one of his toy fuzzy balls. I've thrilled visitors by doing this....making sure that I don't look at or touch my pocket.....all he has to go on is the verbal word.

But, then......standing with my mother at the door, saying goodbye to her, I urged her to say the word "pocket," since Sam was standing next to her, eye to eye, as he stood on a box on the table. I spelled out the word pocket to her when I asked her. Her shirt pocket was only inches away from his face when she began to say "pocket" to him. She asked him over and over, but he just stood there, not taking the bait. Since he stayed put, I urged her to keep asking. Nothing....no response from Sam. Finally, he backed away slowly, jumped down from the table, circled around both of us to jump up on the kitchen bar.....to stick his paw INTO MY POCKET!!! In a way, it broke my heart, even as I was laughing and saying, "Oh, sweetie, other people have pockets, too."

I can't promise to tell no more cat stories, but I will try to hold them to a minimum from this point. I'm at home 100 percent of the time and Sam alone makes that tolerable. This book of animals inspires too many cat thoughts.

Betty

Emu and Elephant. I ask myself 'why those two creatures? And are those creatures just themselves, or do they represent something else?' Perhaps an emu represents the brother? He does seem to take care of all the children from his different marriages much like a male emu takes care of the eggs and young.

Perhaps the sister is represented by the elephant? She pictures herself leading her brother back through the trees, like an elephant matriarch leading the members of her family, her herd along.

Then the 'unnecessary moat' bothered me because I do see it as necesary for a moat is meant to keep people out; and this moat around the emu compound would protect emus and people from each other.

There is that whole 'fat' thing! The brother being obsessed with being thin, and wanting everyone around him to be as thin as possible. He has a lot of control over his sister and she believes all her life that she is fat because he tells her so by teasing her about her weight; and it is only when she reaches her mid-forties that she learns she was of normal weight all along.

How many young women have family members and friends tell them that they are fat when in truth they are perfectly normal?

Joan, this story is filled with so much, that I don't know what to address.

Well, I'm as stumped by this story as the rest of you are. I've read it twice and need to read it again to sort out meanings and implications.

I think emus are very interesting in the way they walk, in the way they "eye" you. And, I agree, why have a concert in the zoo when it upsets the poor elephants? This is certainly not a zoo that is interested in keeping the animals in their natural habitats as much as possible.

The fat and thin elements must have some hidden elements. Certainly the brother and sister are fixated on these opposites, in an obsessive-compulsive way.

I seem to be wandering and I am! I'm looking forward to your comments. I'm sure someone will come up with an enlightened view of this story.

Keene

Did anyone read my comments? Was I way off base on the elephant thing? I seemed to understand it so well when I read it, especially the part about the elephant/ female leader and the shy emu/brother. I don't know what happened to our emu/elephant pictures. Pat W had them here earlier I thought. I'll check with her.

I guess I'm with Gail in having difficulty finding deep hidden significance in these stories - and "E" seems to me to be more obscure and disjointed than the others. I'll be reading to see what you others are finding.

Mary

Betty, I loved your cat story also. Like you, I believe that animals have intelligence and emotions and I'm fascinated by accounts connected to that supposition. I was charmed by the C is for Cat story for that very reason. I was surprised though, by the part of the story where the wife thinks of the kitten she owned in the early part of her marriage and, "for the life of her could not recall what had become of her as a grown cat." Wasn't that strange?

I'm with you, Joan, because I have more questions than answers with Emu. I'm glad that the story is entitled E for Emu AND Elephant. I thought the elephants were much more memorable in the story. I actually had to go back for a second reading to even tune in to the existence of the emus in the story. I did think that their moat was very necessary. It served to protect the emus from the humans.

And the "fat" thing? Was the sister perpetuating the family joke about fat or challenging it when her nephew brought up the subject? I couldn't make up my mind. What about the sidebar of golfing as a career? I couldn't figure out the purpose of injecting that line. Was Adams short a few words on her target length for that part of her manuscript? Likewise, I'm puzzled by the elitist attitude Adams gives the nephew in the story. He is "fascinated by the people in the zoo...they clearly do not live in the upscale suburbs."

Bless you both, Alf and Nellie. You both came up with the only observation about the meaning of the emu/elephant that makes sense. Yes, I gratefully accept that interpretation in this erratic story. I sure haven't been able to come up with anything on my own.

Harriet

HAHAAHH!  Joan that is a riot.  As far as I'm concerned golf is a job, it's laborious, no pay and seldom do you reap any profits.  As far as anorexic , albeit the disease itself, can anyone be TOO thin?  I was born fat, lived fat and will die fat.  It's who I am!  Once our SIS hit her 40s she understood that too.  The brother would rather be fat YES, you've got it.  With all of his teasing he wishes that he were the creature of strength, girth, mass -- the elephant.  He truly admires his sister and hides behind her (the moat) in our story.  The concert to me represented another "gig", another outing for him (our emu.)  Concerts are normally harmonious with unity and collaboration.  This is what he's looking for.  I loved that idea Joan had of the concert being a constant circus and I think you're on to something.  Even Chuck Berry comes to the circus: " his glistening skin tents across his nose andd cheeckbones."

Can anyone help me with the section about going to the Tarzan movies, as we all did as kids?  Harriet picked up on the nephew there but he remains  an enigma to me.

"But we both know about things almost forgotten, like pygmy blowguns and the secret burial ground of the elephants."
When I read that part over the story took on a whole different meaning to me.  She sounds  wounded and hurt.  Perhaps she's not forgotten the insults?  Could it be the "fat" stories of yester-year are still causing her anguish?   I know that that part is relevant but I can't get a handle on it.

Short stories must say so much more in such little space that each sentence must be of importance.

I just had to notify you all that I finally found a chapter in this distressingly-oblique book that I could understand. It doesn't require a rocket scientist's brain to appreciate it. I am SO pleased. It is a really nice "story" and I "got" it.

(I did have to read ahead to the K to find it, though). Maybe there is hope for me yet.

GAIL, I'm going to "rocket" ahead and read K, so I can share your pleasure. I'll look forward to discussing it as we approach K. I agree with you that the stories seem simple on the surface, but have many layers when we look at them closely. I appreciate all the help here in opening those layers of meaning..

I'm enjoying everybody's ideas and comments soooo much!

Harriet

I'm all for writing that suggests other images or references, but I also am ready to say that the emu-elephant story doesn't measure up to the author's other animal stories. Even rereading Alf's interpretation, I'm still left feeling the story doesn't speak to me.

That's why I hesitate to say that some who write about fat issues talk about a protective layer that keeps out the world, much as the story's moat keeps out the world. I saw that the first read-through, but it didn't help me with the overall story.

That sentence you're struggling with, Joan...I don't think he literally would rather be fat. I think he was trying to say nothing is worse than being with a fat person. In other words, he's too aware of external criticism of HIM, of his being with a fat person....or so he imagines.

But, again, maybe we are giving too much credit to the author and the sentence that doesn't make sense is a sentence that doesn't make sense.

Betty

I'm thinking about that 'mysterious' sentence: "...though he would rather be dead than fat, and rather be fat than related to someone who is..."

To me she is saying in an oblique way that her brother would rather be dead than be related to someone who is fat. And he's given her some kind of special status that saves 'face' for him mostly and for her.

It is odd that I, for one, at once associated the elephant with the person in the story who was perceived to be fat. Elephants are large, but I do not believe that they are fat. But now I'm thinking of something...the brother is thin, but he looms large in the lives of his sister and his sons -when he plans an outing everyone goes for instance-and elephants loom large in a physical way; so one could say he is the elephant.

But I think the elephant represents her also. I think both animals represent each of them in different ways.

That said, I think we will never quite figure this story out. Perhaps it is simply about how fat people are often treated by some thin people in this world?

                                                                                F IS FOR FOX

Well I'm stumped on this one, I must admit.  What in the world is she doing carrying on a "telephone relationship" with this nearly-mute Henry dude?  He is obviously an introvert or possibly aphasiac!  Imagine traveling that many miles without speaking.  (that only happens when I am reading.)  That is taking patient confidentaility to the nth degree.  She even knows that "he has nothing to say."  Why is she wasting good gas and good time on this guy?  They are of two different worlds.  Is that the analogy here?  The fox and the sandhill cranes?  I give up.  Is she going to get just close enough to this guy and then take flight?

I did learn something reading and researching this story about the sandhill cranes, but it's entirely irrelevant.

 All of the members of this genus share an anatomical peculiarity; the trachea or windpipe is exceptionally long-as much as 1.5 m (5 ft)-and is coiled within the hollowed keel of the breastbone, somewhat like a French horn. It is believed that this arrangement gives additional resonance to the loud calls for which cranes of this genus are noted.

Why were the foxes "screaming"at the dogs ?
 

Gail and Harriet. Help, wait for us. I liked th G and H stories. I'll need help on the H is for Hen as I'm confused about that one.

G IS FOR GOOSE

This story reeks with Instinctive Behaviors!

All genus of animals, including man are infused with instinctive, ingrained behaviors.
· Our female dog "instinctively" kills the geese and the two ducks in the pen.
· Upon hearing the honking call of the geese our narrator "instinctively" flew from the house.
· She instinctively screeches smacks and grabs the dog to lock her up. (Feeling remorseful later as women "instinctively" do.)
· She "instinctively" cups the baby chicks in her palm when she picks them up from the post office.

· "Instinctively" the remaining geese honk in mourning.
· "Instinctively" the geese mate in their own fashion.


· Hubby "instinctively" blames his wife for initially buying the geese, criticizing her need for buying something to love from a "mail order."
· He berates her for letting the dog have access to the birds.


Now comes the eye opener of the tale.

As with instinctive behaviors, life becomes humdrum and uneventful.
The mundane creeps into everyday life and "the world reknits at the seams and went on."
Except for hubby who needs someone to blame. Do you think it is his own choice of mate that has him so ugly?

Why can he not grieve for the birds and/or his marriage? She made the best of her situation, why didn't he?

I'm with you Alf. I planned to read ahead, but NOT rush ahead. I'm sticking with Robert's Rules of Order with our book!

Going back to FOX briefly, and then I'll return with GOOSE.

FOX is a strange story. I can understand the initial appeal of our narrator's phone conversations. "His voice on the phone is deep and warm, naturally seductive...tonight, boyish and amused."

But so many inconsistencies? The fellow is a psychologist. His stock in trade is making contact with people in need. Yet he has nothing to say for himself, or for the comfort of his beleaguered, embarrassed phone buddy for sixty miserable miles? How come neither of them have enough social skills to find an excuse for postponing HER return visit? I just don't get it. Is both of their loneliness so intense that they must resume their phone romance?

I'm not sure how the foxes and cranes fit into the story. The fox kits are always laying an ambush for the cranes, but the cranes slide out of reach at the last minute because they can fly...or perhaps swim through the air? The foxes scream as if they are in anguish?

When I try symbolism, it doesn't work for me. Was the narrator, like the fox, laying a romantic trap for the crane, representing the psychologist? Did he escape from the sea of misery in a plane? Looks like I associateded the animals differently. Too far fetched? I'm stuck!

At the end of the story, our narrator pictures Henry driving toward the "next young girl who is trapped between longing and shame." What does that mean to her personally? Will Henry be able to help ANYONE?

Harriet

We've now come to the character I most actively dislike in all the stories thus far.

I see this husband as a malevolent scapegoater. He needs to point a finger and blame someone for anything that upsets him. This guy wants to blame his wife for the barnyard accident, and he wants to keep bringing the incident up, and bringing the incident up and bringing the incident up....

With a husband like this, that wife has ALL the enemies allowable in one lifetime! I related to the part of the story describing the mating of the geese. "The ganders grasped the necks of the geese in their beaks and held them underwater."

Looks like she married a gander also, and she's drowning in his petulance and hate. Why doesn't SHE unmate?

Harriet

Harriet: Perhaps she could drown him while engaging in the mating "dance." I'm with you and I'm afraid I can not shed any more light on this one. Perhaps one of our other participants can show us another angle to these beasts.

Andy

What does this mean in light of the raison d'etre of the stories? Anything? What is a small thing? Save us from what? Or does it not have any relevance whatsoever?

I'm here, but I think I will have to read Fox, and Goose, a couple of times before I can make any sensible comments.

Joan, oh, I like that......"those little epiphanies that occur while observing the animal world." That suggests an interconnectedness that rings true.

But, are those epiphanies missed by some of the characters? Meant for the readers? I'm still confused about that.

I haven't read further in the book, but, so far, there is a common growing distance between husbands and wives......which is odd to think about, given my thought of interconnectedness between humans and animals.

My only addition to Joan's fine thoughts on F for Foxes is about the psychologist. The phone calls "work," maybe, because he is a practiced listener and that is what she needs....someone to hear what she has to say.

I had a similar experience to our protagonists. A Newsweek article written by a San Francisco Chronicle journalist presented his complaint that it isn't fair that men have to ask women for dates more than women ask men. That men have to shoulder all this risk of rejection. That women should do more asking.

So, on a wild impulse, I called him to ask him out. (I lived in Austin and he lived in San Francisco.) It was a great phone call. What was meant to be a joke turned into a very interesting, long talk. A few more phone calls and many letters later, we planned to meet. He routed a trip to New York through Austin and I found him a wonderful Victorian-type hotel room. Within an hour or two after picking him up from the airport, I knew that our great phone calls didn't translate into real life attraction, though we went on with our planned activities with enthusiasm and good humor. That's where the similarity to the story ends. We didn't resume the phone calls. I did go through a period of mourning.....I was missing the phantom guy from my imagination. I still have a sentimental feeling about an antique sugar and creamer he bought me during that weekend.

Betty

I'm fascinated by your insights on Fox and Goose. BETTY, thanks for sharing your story. I admire your willingness to initiate a friendship.

I do have one comment to make about "Goose." I know it is wrong for the husband to blame his wife for the barnyard mishap, but isn't it human nature to try to put blame on someone else for unpleasant things that happen, not that it's ok. Unpleasant things happen and I guess in our search for meaning and reason, we often blame others when we cannot come up with an answer as to "why." I'm not excusing this behaviour but I have seen it over and over again. We often get angry with others who are close to use when we cannot control circumstances. I do not see this husband as a "bad guy," just as a human with faults.

JOAN, I love your comment about "little epiphanies that occur while observing the animal world." These stories give us a bit of insight into our own behaviour. Her words direct me to think of my own behaviour and that of others while observing behaviour in the animal world. "Any small thing can save you" is perhaps a little beam of light, understanding, which helps us with our own lives. -Keene

Betty, thanks for the story. Joan, I loved the insight into the title.

Keene, I agree that it may be human nature to blame, but I felt that in GOOSE, it's the unrelenting quality of the emotion that distinguishes it. It's true that many of us ordinary mortals have experienced or instigated an emotional flare-up of scapegoating but, in time, perspective is usually restored.

I thought Andy brought up a valid point in that there's probably deeper issues involved when the husband continues to belabor the issue indefinitely.

Harriet

I think that F is For Fox is about 'distance'. When the story begins she is talking to Henry long-distance; and the fox kits are blurred by distance; the sandhill cranes are at the other end of the field from the foxes, giving another sense of distance.

As the cranes make their way down the field to where the fox kits wait in ambush, we learn how the narrator and Henry met through a newspaper ad, and how they talk almost daily on the phone and share what is happening around them. I find it interesting that he talks about things that he is personally doing, like getting dressed, and she talks about impersonal things like the foxes and cranes in the field.

I like the way her telling about she and Henry getting together, first at her place, and then at his, blends into the coming together of the cranes and the foxes with the cranes flying away; much like she and Henry flew away from each other.

And they are back at a distance again.

Goose. I think this last sentence is a telling one, and a bit puzzling to me: "Mated for life and unable to grieve, he wants someone to blame." It seems to me he is blaming her for more than the deaths of the geese, but there is nothing in the story that hints as to what it might be.

Mainly the story seems to be about unexpected death, mourning and going on with life; she like the geese is able to go on with her life; but her husband cannot.

I haven't read all the stories since I am reading them as we go along. I have noticed that in most of the stories the narrator seems to be female. Any significance to that?

Those are my thoughts...such as they are.

HARRIET, you are right about the unrelenting "scapegoating" on the part of the husband, and this must hide some deep-seated unresolved resentments and problems between the couple. -Keene

Joan: Your insightful, intelligent posts make us take pause so I will await response from our readers before moving on to H today.

One thought from me: Could the white signify a "whitewash"? Are these stories a camouflage for the narrators real lives?
Are the real truths ,which have been concealed and covered up, now been exposed, lightening the onus of the reality of their situations? OR have they been neutralized with the "Whitewash?" It does seem a bit complex doesn't it?

Joan, I have seen white geese -the ones that used to chase me were all pure white.

Perhaps the white of the birds in the story represented innocence and purity? That leads one in a whole new direction, doesn't it?

ALF, interesting to think about the stories being camouflage for what is really happening in each narrator's life. I am going to have to think on this some more. Maybe we can come back to this idea when we have reached the end of the book?

One thought on the need to blame someone. There is something called "just world" theory in our culture and it's probably more universal than just in our western culture. It's related to a need for things to be fair and, also, for things to be rational. In short, our brain tells us.....if something happened, something or someone caused it. It seems to go against our nature (or our cultural learning) to leave a cause blank, and difficult to say, "No one is to blame. It just happened."

This comes up in families with a serious illness or disability. Instead of saying, it just happened, sometimes God is blamed or, quite often, there are hints that the person with the disability or illness is to blame. In one counselling group I did with people with disabilities, two people of the small group had to contend with parents who thought that not being a good enough Christian brought a disability upon oneself.

The blaming going on in the story (woman's fault that the dog got over the fence) has already been explained well by others. I would only add that the impulse to blame sometimes is very strong, so if someone is already an impatient or nasty person, blaming others becomes even easier to do.

Betty

p.s. Remember how difficult it was for the courts to stop blaming women for being raped? What were you wearing? What were you doing there by yourself? This is about blaming people for catastrophes that happens to them.....a cousin to blaming someone for having a disability.

Betty, your message really touched me. I'm dealing with a situation in my family in which others are blamed for situations in which they had no part at all. I guess my answer to this is that they (the persons who are blaming) cannot deal with the reality of the situation. They do everything they can to deny the reality of the problem and in order to satisfy themselves, spread the blame to others, who are in turn splattered with this type of reaction to problems. I hope I'm making sense. I think the husband in this story was doing exactly that. Keene

Good morning dear friends. We now come to H is for Hen. I have read and reread this vignette a half-dozen times and each time I come up with a different thought. My thoughts are sporadic and (like me) disorganized.

I'd like to open our discussion with two thoughst in mind. Our narrator Gene was returned to the "roost" in Texas where she is "chosen" by the hen.

I hope that you will join me today in getting this story analyzed. There are so many different facets in these short, poignant pages.

I am a member of Sr. Net and have just had my first novel published. It is an historical novel based on the life of my maternal grandmother. Information and a sample page or 2 is available online at: www.xlibris.com/Julia.html or www.xlibris.com/JoanGrindley.html. Thanks for letting me share my good news. Joan Grindley grindleyj@aol.com

A few quick thoughts before I leave the house on errands. Gene was an adoptee, a beloved "chosen child"...although her belated discovery of her status was enormously traumatic. Up until then she had lived her life in a world that she saw as having clear family definitions.

Gene and the hen "chose" each other and the bird lived trustfully with her in a supposedly safe home area. I guess the hen was a symbol of herself before she discovered the family secrets that others knew, but never shared with her? "There's those two old maids," Gene said, referring to herself and the hen.

If Gene had known her true status, her relationship with Mack might have evolved differently. She had felt constrained about loving him in a sexual way because she believed they were cousins. But...if Mack had returned her feelings, I wonder why he didn't tell her the truth before he married someone else? At one point in the story Mack seems to imply that their supposed family relationship wasn't the only reason that they never had a serious romance in their youth. That one puzzles me.

It must have been so distressing for her to learn that others had known the truth about her adoption, but kept silent. It was meant as an act of love by her parents. They had always felt that she WAS their child in every way, but somehow it began to feel like a betrayal to Gene, a loving conspiracy that degraded her because she wasn't privy to the personal family information that everyone else knew. She felt herself to be an out-of-the-loop, disoriented person in the family that she had thought she understood so well?

Harriet

Hi Very interesting discussions. Still waiting for the book so just lurking. Just so Andy knows I am around.

Joan Grin, Welcome to Books. I have found part of The Story of Life on line and enjoyed what is on line. Thank You so much. My GrandMother also came thru Ellis Island from a different country. My GrandMother came from Ireland.

Will be watching for your posts.

Ginger

Harriet, I love your take on this "they lived in a supposedly safe home area"-- at least until the news was out.
Her mother was dressed for their dinner date, with pearls and all, as if she were being introduced to someone new, wasn't she?
I understand her despair and loved the way that was written-- as crowds of imaginary people invaded her thoughts she felt like SHE were the imposter as she walked to Mack's home.

Now, he had not known, he said maybe his folks knew but he did not! She had loved and made love before but it never quite felt right-- because it wasn't Mack. Where else does this hen fit into the story?

I will wait for a little bit longer and if there are no new comments, I shall proceed to I is for Impala. Anybody out there today? Harriet, are you still with me? Barb, Betty, Clare, Zwyam --oh yoo-hoo!

I'm still here - just haven't had many comments (something new for me). I'm enjoying reading what others are finding in the stories. I must admit that I've not been finding the things that others are seeing.

Re the parents dressing up for dinner...I took it to mean that they were dressing up for an important occasion - imparting their final wishes to their daughter. And then they dropped this bomb on her. But I didn't see it as a formal meeting with a stranger.

I'll be lurking.

Mary

Andy, I would say that you and Mary are BOTH right about the dinner. Gene's parents dressed up for the occasion of telling her about her parentage, but the formal atmosphere contributed to the alienation that she felt. It was so different from her usual visits.

I reread backwards and, as you said, Andy, Mack DIDN'T know about the adoption. He had even wanted to marry Gene when he returned from Vietnam. For some reason this had not been significant enough for Gene to remember on her own, until Mack reminded her. WHY? Maybe she considered it so far out of the realm of possibility that it became cancelled out in her mind? Is there a legal issue involving marriage of first cousins in any states? Or are such marriages merely considered unusual because of the close blood ties?

Gene cries harder than she can ever remember crying after her big revelation. This was part of her reaction to the shock of it all. Shortly afterwards the hen is startled by a loud noise and reacts, all ruffled feathers and fear. Gene soothes the hen, her terrified alter ego. "Shush," she said. "You're not takin' any harm."

But is that really true for each of them? The noise that terrified the hen forecast the even greater disaster that would shortly follow in its life. Like the hen, will there be future repercussions for Gene? Her life and Mack's have taken divergent courses because of their supposed kinship? Her sense of who she is and where she belongs in the world was set in a different course because of information that had been withheld? Even her father, caught by the strangeness of it all, calls her Eugenia, rather than Gene when he visits.

The ending of the story seems to affirm Gene's basic survival skills from a double whammy of both identity loss and job loss. Or does it? Is the rising sun a "sign of life" or an "urgent message"? If an urgent message, what is the direction of the message? The story leaves me with a lot of open conjectures.

I loved the writing in this story and was very caught up in the emotions.

Harriet

You have touched on something that I missed when you ask about the "rising sun" and the direction.

I kept rereading the part about the dead hen, reevaluating the significance of the "skunk" killing it. Does it mean there's "something rotten" here, odiferous; or does it mean that all is inevitable in life and that she will go on?

Perhaps the author has left this story open as she did so that we might finalize it in our own way. I loved this one. It was so sad.

Mary: Isn't it strange how some stories seem to speak to us and others do not? Some of these are so fervant and passionate while others I shrug and wonder "what am I missing?"

That's an interesting point to consider about the skunk. I wondered about a darker interpretation for the hen's death, Andy. Some losses, like death, are irretrievable.

The author quietly slipped in the news about Gene's department being closed down at the university. That means Gene has had two losses close together. At least part of most people's self identity rests strongly on family and job images and she's having a rough time with both. That can be traumatic. Is she going through a death of part of her self image, and a rebirth of a new way of seeing herself?

Harriet

Oh boy, this is one of those that I am going to need everyone else's thoughts on-- I miss the point here.

Our narrrator reminisces about her youthful days of yester- year as she rides with her husband across the vast plains of New Mexico. Now -- she, her sister and her mother were transplanted from Florida to California after her father deserted them.
Is our author saying that this woman in a wheelchair is unable to "roam" unassisted? That she is no longer wild and free as the Impala, mustangs and Ibex were when she was young?

HELP!! I'm all in a tizzy over this story and need your perceptions.

J IS FOR JOSIE
This story I understand. Our narrator introduces us to herself as a young girl asking her mother for a puppy. The wish is granted , a black dog is chosen and named "Josie" because her divorced "father's dogs had always been black and named Josie."

Josie, with her beautiful mother, brother and the sister share everything for a while; their Tampa apartment, their food and another move off the base- until the mysterious boyfriend, the master sergeant comes on the scene and a "big move" was announced. sans Josie.
The only thing left of her happy childhood was a photograph of her smiling with Josie and her pups. She recalls all of this, her love for her mother at 11 or 12 years old and then her awkward teens when "her mother became a tired household policeman." She never loves her the same and blames herself, thinking that she is paying for the mistake. The big question is: Which mistake is this woman blaming herself for?


This is a heartbreaking story, oh-- so familiar to me as a divorced mother. Our narrator wonders is she should have asked "For how long" can I have the puppy? "

For how long can any of us have happiness? How long can fleeting joy last?

Joan: You have such a wonderful way of stating the facts in an organized cohesive sentence. I continue to stammer and stutter, hoping that I am not "personalizing" these stories to suit myself. You mentioned in an earlier post that perhaps Ms Adams is revealing a great deal about herself in these vignettes. If that is the case I feel that our questions will continue to go unanswered.

Great comments, Joan!

Andy, I think you're doing a WONDERFUL job with this book. I love hearing other people's ideas and I've always believed that comments reflecting a personal point of view increase the richness and texture of any conversation. Your comments certainly do!

Harriet

IMPALA

Animals and cars, are they one and the same? The cars with the names of animals and the animals with the names of cars? Lark, Impala, Mustang? Of course there's a Volks and Mercedes thrown in too. Bad drivers go to wonderful places? I'm pretty confused also.

Why does the husband put bars on the windows of the garage facing the canyons and hills? The garage holds the freedom-giving car and the bars surround the car? And the woman in the restrictive wheelchair sits in the car? And she's chauffeured by her terrible driver husband?

Oy vey!

Everyone in the story is mixed up about the names of the animals. I relate to that. I'm pretty mixed up about this story too.

Harriet

I don't have much to say about the Hen, except that it was a nice story to read and that it seemed longer than the other stories.

Impala: I find this to be rather a strange story. I was surprised to learn that she -the narrator-is in a wheelchair. She talks about her husband being a bad driver; and remembers that both her mother and grandmother were bad drivers also. But there is no mention of the accident that put her in the wheelchair.

And there is no real physical animal in this story -the Impala is a car. Yet it represents freedom to our narrator, this car that gave command of the freeway and roamed free with the Mustangs.

Interesting use of symbolism in this story: we have the living impala which symbolizes freedom, which lends its name to a car; which in turn symbolizes remembered freedom to move as she will and when she wills for the narrator.

Josie: Does the narrator feel that she is being punished for asking for a puppy when she was a child by the death of her mother? After ten years she still grieves for her mother. And she still remembers the dog Josie and the short time she was with them.

Anyways those are my thoughts for today.

I thank you Harriet for your kind words. I am however in the dark with this Impla story. It leaves us with many unanswered questions. I'll say one thing, I recognize our author(ess) as a wisened, saddened muser.

Yes, Nellie I do believe that our narrator has implicated herself , feeling the over powering guilt that is so frequently present is a dovorced family situation. It is a death! A death of a family . Unfortunately the guilt that children carries many times outweighs and outlasts the marriage.

I'm getting used to "half-understanding" these stories. It seems to be Christina Adam's modus operandi, doesn't it? Giving us just enough to make us recognize the situation, but only tantalizing hints as to the significance of other details. It's up to us to put them together to come up with the "lesson" from the animal kingdom.

For one fleeting moment, at the mention of the "feral emus", I thought...aha, we are returning to the emu that was only described as "uninteresting" back in the zoo. Maybe we'll learn more that will help answer the mounting pile of unanswered questions. But no, no more...we moved on to th impala - and then to Impala.

Andy, I agree, the make of cars is key here - and the narrator no longer wild and free, as the chair indicates. From the abrupt mention of the chair, I went back and read the story again. There's not enough there to say for sure that she is in the chair because of a car accident. Is there? I just feel it, don't you?

Grandma doesn't seem "cheap" to me...she gave them the Lark to get out of Florida...brand new car too, not a used car. But there was embarassment associated with the Lark...because it was the "cheapest" car on the market? Maybe. Maybe because when her father deserted them they had to struggle to live on her mother's teacher's salary. Her mother was driving around the canyons in the Lark drunk...well, I can see where there are no happy memories attached to it.

Have you ever been in the passenger seat as the driver manipulates the hairpin turns...pointing out scenic vistas as he does so? Hair-raising experience! But with a driver who's had a few drinks? Sheer terror. From this moment on, I was afraid for her.

Cars are so often named after animal's characteristics, aren't they? The mention of the Mustang at the end...indicates the wild and free - but what of the Impala?

So, she's driving the Impala now...fast and free. No, wait, that's not how the Impala is described...it "cruised like a parade float"...It does not back out of the driveway easily, even without fins. We had a Chevy Impala. A real Detroit monster. It wasn't a speedy car. Why was it named Impala? I think of them as fleet and graceful, don't you? This car was nothing like an Impala.

I think the key to the story is the contrast between the boyfriend she could have had if she wanted a sensible driver (the VW guy)...while her inclination is to be free. I can see the attraction to the Mustang, which is "wild and free"... will this lead to trouble? To an accident?

"They had wild antelope in L.A. when I was a girl...appeared about the time I was in high school - and ran free all around here...with the Mustangs."

What is she saying here, Nellie? Wild antelope in L.A.? L.A.? They ran free with the Mustangs? (Mustangs with a capital "M"?)

They got the Impala when she was in high school, right? Now she is free from the stigma of the Lark (which was anything but a lark) - the Impala in this sense is her freedom...to move with the fast crowd, with the Mustangs.

So much being said between the lines here...

"How long can happiness last?" Andy questioned on the Josie story. I agree that's the theme of the story. There's happiness/grief and love/loss running through it.

I don't connect up the loss of Josie with the narrator's lesser love for her mother. That seems to have been part of growing older. Anyway, HAS she really forgotten her childhood love and need of her mother. To this day, her mother remains alive in her dreams, and the narrator's first waking emotion is the sensation of loss at her death. Come to think of it, IS there some sort of equation between the death of Josie, felt minimally in the excitement of the cross-country move, and the death of her mother who she appreciated less in adulthood?

The narrator remembers the puppy and her early days with her mother with happiness. Much of the story has dark overtones, I thought, with nostalgic reminiscences of people, pets and events that were parted with too casually. Her mother's refusal to even try to find a home for Josie is sad. The implication is that all happiness leads to loss and disappointment.

Yet, I remember a comment by a character in a movie a while back. No matter what losses we endure, how long can we keep happiness away? Like adversity, it comes creeping back at the most unexpected times, sometimes against our will. Even in the most traumatic of circumstances, a moment of happiness can suddenly surprise us.

Harriet

Harriet , Joan, et al, shall we proceed to Kestral? I loved this little story and throughout the read I kept thinking to myself, 'set it free, set it free."

Falconry was introduced by the Romans and then became extremly popular with the English royalty and nobility. The type of hawk or falcon an Englishman carried on his wrist when he went hawking marked his rank. Thus, a king carried the gyrfalcon, an earl the peregrine, a yeoman the goshawk, a priest the sparrow hawk,and a servant the kestrel.

A kestrel's flight is slower than that of larger falcons. Some hunt by flying over open country and periodically hovering with beating wings as they search for insects and small rodents. Was this Kestral looking for something else? Did the eye injury facillitate the collision or vice-versa? That seems pertinent doesn't it?

I know that female falcons lay 4 to 5 eggs which vary in color but I could find nothing about the male protecting the nest. Is this true?

This also has biblical references, as most of these stories do- Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom and stretch her wings toward the south?' (Job 39:26)

Had she been isolated and insulated where she lived? Was she spreading her wings as well?

I will await your comments. .

What struck me most in this story is at first the woman keeps protesting over the first part of the story that the bird had hit her, she couldn' believe that it hadn't veered out of the way, IT hit HER. But at the end of the story she says "Finally, I drove alone to the exact spot on the way to town where I had hit the kestrel" and a few sentences later she says, "...she arced to the left and flew directly north, on the exact path she had been on when I hit her." My inclination is to think that in the process of nursing this bird back to health she did, in fact, make it her bird - take ownership of the bird and the circumstances as well. And having owned it this way, she no longer ever needed to physically want to own one. "...I no longer want to have a falcon, but I did, I had one for a little while."

The hawk is customarily carried on the left hand, so that when it has been let off the leash to catch something, it should fly back onto the right. 'His left hand', it is written, 'is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me' (Song of Solomon, 2:6)

Does our heroine perhaps have invisible wings as well? Wings of thought! Wings of thought to cast off the weight of her life so that now she can fly freely thru life.
These stories are supposed to imitate love. Hmmmmm-mm.

"It takes so long to learn things" she tells her brother. she no longer wants to possess the birds she once longed for. Is this a bit like "If you love lomething, set it free?"

Kestrel: ALF, I think that this story is about letting go of dreams and attaining them at the same time.

When she is a girl the narrator has a 'dream' about being a falconer, and a second dream about healing sick and injured birds in the form of the mockingbirds that always end up dead the next morning in spite of her tender care.

Then she hits the kestrel, a small falcon, cares for it until it is well and able to return to the wild. She has a hard time letting the kestrel go because it means letting go of the falconry dream; but having had the dream for a short while she can finally let go of it.

I find it interesting that it is mockingbirds she cares for in vain as a girl -they seem to 'mock' her desire to make them well by dying, don't they?

Joan, I assumed when she spoke of the 'wild antelopes' running with the Mustangs, that she was referring to the cars and not real antelopes.

I've had house guests and haven't been able to get to the computer (nor do the readings). However, will do so today and hope to catch up. -Keene

I loved reading everybody's posts. I think you've all illuminated this small story beautifully and added to my pleasure in it.

Harriet

--- and yes, I do believe we are getting a glimpse into Ms Adams' psyche through these stories.

L IS FOR LARK

"Did you know, today is the shortest day of the year? Tomorrow, the day will be longer," she told the pinch faced visitor. She has won! She's managed and survived the adversity of the winters and the harshness of the divorce. She accepts the hardships inherent in her life and reminisces with love in her heart. Reading this I kept singing to myself "the sun'll come out." Does her visitor represent "the flip side of the coin" - the other life out there, away from the challenge of ranch living?

Yellow, like a lark, she painted the dark and dreary rooms, even though she was warned against using that color.

She listens to the song of the meadowlarks, "so much more liquid and lovely than any other birdsong."

The larkspur grew with tall spikes the color of the sky. Perhaps they are poison to a cow but they too survived.

She lasted and Bob moved on.

Joan, I have to think a bit on your questions, but I think you are leading me to an answer of sorts to the question of how she ended up in the wheelchair. Let me see if I can make this understandable...

I think that both the antelopes she mentions, which are represented by the Chevy Impala, and the Mustangs are cars. Now if I remember right Mustangs were often driven by younger folks with a liking for speed. So her mentioning that the wild antelopes ran with the wild Mustangs, means to me she was driving that Impala in a group of speed loving Mustang car drivers...it was a time she was wild and free. And I think the accident that put her in the wheelchair happened then.

Now on to the Lark:

What can I say about this story? Yes she has won and survived in a place where no one could -and I would gather, she did it by remembering the things of Summer, specially the lovely liquid song of the lark. What does the visiting writer represent? The outside world, certainly; but when he wants to talk about the places he has been -just come from Bali-she ignores him and goes on with her own thoughts. I think that the writer also represents her ex-husband. I can picture him listening to her tale of the lark song and the other things of summer all winter long, never getting one word in for himself, until the only thing he can do for himself is to leave her.

Would she, like the lark, fly off to a warmer place given the chance? Does she not because it would be a sign of weakness in the eyes of the people around her?

LARK

Our narrator focuses on what is lovely...the liquid sound of the meadowlark, the scent of lilies and clover. She prepares to welcome a houseguest with warmth and pleasure.

I saw the writer as a symbol of negativism. Such a suspicious, pedantic, unresponsive man! He was the outside world at its worst, come to visit her. His suspicious nature frustrated every attempt at hospitality by our narrator. Although a travel writer, his conversation was about what he disliked in Bali and his whole approach to life was defensive and snobbish. I wonder why he even took a chance at spending an evening in the company of another. The writer adopts a superior, above-it-all stance about everything from the narrator's failed marriage to the pollution of Bali. I saw him as a contrast to our narrator's passion for life.

As Joan would say, what is the lesson here? "Tomorrow will be longer." says our lady rancher of undetermined age. The long winter is made pleasurable by her awareness that each day is a drop longer and closer to summer. Her cup is always half full.

The writer's cup is always mostly empty. His travels point up to his personality the flaws and imperfections of places and people. Is Adam saying that joy is in the eye of the beholder?

Harriet

Harriet: I think you have hit into the core of this story with this. The writer's cup is always mostly empty. His travels point up to his personality the flaws and imperfections of places and people. Is Adam saying that joy is in the eye of the beholder?

I believe that her pleasure and joy was right there at the ranch amonst the mysteries of nature. She decides at the end to explain to him "the Doppler effects, as it applies to meadowlarks." She figures this is the only language that he understands.

Nellie: No! I don't think that she would fly off, like the lark, to a warmer place given the chance. "Does she not because it would be a sign of weakness in the eyes of the people around her, " you ask? I don't believe that is the case. She appears quite proud of the fact that she has "made it." It certainly is a story of comparisons in life styles. Love? What is our author telling us about love- that we can make it once we have our minds set in the right direction( for each one of us?)

Yes, I agree Joan I think we are onto Ms. Adam. Didn't you just loveour Earl neighbor here in Moose, who seemed to take her under his wing after her husband left? Imagine being trampled by a moose? Yikes, they are enormous animals and a mother protecting her young, I wouldn't want to mess with.

She recalls it all in her state of shock, including the notes of red-winged blackbirds so sweet after a long winter. It does seem to tie into the lark, yes.

N IS FOR NIGHTCRAWLER

Like many people Bob fishes without bait but our narrator didn't want to fish she wanted to EAT a fish. "A trount right from the water. She "worms" it out of Bob that he doesn't want to kill the worms and she questions if he knew the worms personally. That is funny. As she progresses down river , she can't dissect the worm so she wraps it around her hook , only to lose it to the river. Giving up, she returns upstream and reminisses (she does a lot of that in these stories) about her old tomcat. The story takes a turn right there and we are let into a family with many problems.

Returning to Bob, her anger returns and she silently criticizes Bob for his tender heart. I think she too became quite tenderhearted at the end when she freed the worms.. Comments??

O IS FOR OPOSSUM

The adults reminisce and the children roam. I guess it is instinctive to want to protect the young. Comments?

You have my admiration, Joan. It's a gift to put things together in such a coherent, logical way. Everything that you write strikes a responsive chord. I even sensed a lot of it, but couldn't untangle the web of stories well enough to comment on it. How well you did it!

I have to go back for some rereading. I'm trying to figure out the personality of the little girl who fended off the bill collectors on the phone for her mother after school, and took a beloved pet to be "put down" because her mother found the job distressing and handed it over to the child. Isn't she shaping up as a particularly permissive person who would accept a needy husband and take care of him, just as she watched out for her beautiful, weak mother? She's also the type of woman who notices when her husband seems impatient in a bookstore and curtails her own needs to accomodate him? Maybe she's tough on herself and overly easy on the people around her?

I'm becoming fascinated by the stream-of-consciousness incidents pouring out of these stories and the reactions of the narrator in each one.

Harriet

Joan, you are doing a most wonderful job of putting these stories in perspective and letting us see that they form one complete whole in the book.

I do have one question: where does Bats fit in? It seems to be the odd story out. Then the question is, why is it in the book? I can see where all the female narrators are really the same person, but I can't yet see where this Raymond fits in.

Not much time, so comments on the stories tomorrow.

This book is beginning to shape up as a stream-of-consciousness, time jumping venture into the past of the narrator, and the mind and hearts of those who impacted her life.

In HEN: (p.50 of my edition) "On the first of August, her cousin Mack drove into town to meet with HER DAD regarding one of their construction jobs. Raymond, who had served in the Pacific during WWII, loved Mack..."
It would seem that Raymond, from BATS, is the father of our narrator, Eugenia. Gene has a brother and sister in ELEPHANT and JOSIE. Are they adopted also? If not, is this why her sense of alienation is so profound after discovering that SHE was an adoptee? Gene's parents are not living together any longer in JOSIE, yet Raymond, her father, is trying to adjust to the death of his wife in BATS? Both of her parents have apparently been reunited in HEN? More and more puzzles are coming up as we go along.

In IMPALA we have a feminine narrator who is married to Walter, a bad driver. Is the author stepping into the mind of another important person in her life, perhaps her sister, to set a scene for her disabling accident? The female narrator in IMPALA talks about learning to drive with her sister (our author?) and of the long trip cross-country after the desertion of their father.

I wonder if this will all be resolved in a tidy way?

Harriet

Excellent posts with deep recognition into our narrator's life (lives.)

P is for Porcupine
Our narrator in this one goes off the deep end and gets herself a cowboy! My gramma would have labeled her a "wanton hussey." I always make a feeble attempt to remark on the author's choice of animals and the single thing that I can come up with in Porcupine is the fact that the quills, which have needle-sharp ends containing hundreds of barbs, can be erected by the muscles of the skin. Bill displayed his muscles. "His body was like no other I had ever felt. Bucking hay had turned his muscles so hard, they had no give.

They witnessed the coupling of the two porcupines and she heard the female cry out in pain. After that,like our characters, the animals went on about their own way.

I'm so busy trying to figure out who the narrator is, that it's hard to comment on the story itself.

Our narrator is Gene's mother, perhaps? Ray, Gene's father, is her boyfriend, but he's not her dream man. He's her second choice, and the man she really dreams of is uneducated, uncouth and unavailable. She's drawn to the hard, virile West, and the man, Bill, who took over Ray's job as head of the hay crew. The woman knows she is giving pain to her boyfriend, Ray, and the groundwork is being laid for their separation that will follow many years later?

No wonder most of the narrating characters don't have a name. They are a constantly changing spectrum from the past and the present. We view their world through their eyes without regard to gender or time.

Harriet

HAHAHA, I think that the lesson could beware who sticks it to you."

Poor Pequod. The survival of the fittest is what this is about. Tthere is always going to be something,/someone bigger, stronger and meaner ready to pounce. Pequod and our narrator after watching the quail must recognize the origin of the species.

Monogamous, after the breeding season, quails (bobwhites) gather into coveys-groups that may number over 100 birds-dispersing during the day for feeding and reassembling at night or in adverse weather. The members of the covey seek warmth and protection by huddling in a circle, with their heads turned outward. If frightened, bobwhites (like most quail) prefer to run from danger; when flushed, they fly rapidly with a loud whirring sound, but quickly drop to earth.

How do we avert disasters? The racist vet hoards his guns and food. Our narrator installs bars and grates on windows and doors.

An ultimate disaster MAY eventually happen, but I rather think that if it does, it will catch us by surprise. I understand that some sort of asteroid passed within 75,000 miles of earth recently. Astronomers proclaimed it to be the nearest miss in decades, but it was only fully charted AFTER it had bypassed Earth.

What an impressive planetary skywatch program we have, right? Anyway, if we all had known it was coming, what could we have done about it?

The losses of daily life do just seem to happen, though. I'm touched by the love and protectiveness of this couple for Pequod. They treat her like their child. They tell us "We promised Pequod that we wouldn't bring any other pets into the house in her lifetime." It's a stressful promise to keep because the wife would have been glad for the protective company of a dog when she is alone in her glass house at night.

I felt that loss runs through this story. There is the loss of the wife's mother, and the couple's loss of a feeling of personal safety after the intrusion and robbery of their glass house. Is the glass house symbolic, do you think? Do we all live in glass houses? And finally, as the fragility and age of Pequod is described in the story, I can feel these people preparing themselves for the future loss of their beloved cat.

Yet it may be the contrast between a fear of loss and the unexpected appearance of one of life's golden moments that can add an extra spoonful of pleasure to daily life. The QUAILS provided an enchanted moment. The pleasure is increased as our couple view the birds empathetically through the eyes of their elderly "mighty hunter." I can feel the poignancy. "Pequod's mouth chattered with an old instinct, her gray whiskers shivering."

Last week I drove through a back country road after an errand. A family of geese were crossing the highway between their pond and a grassy area. I braked and watched as the geese, with no particular hurry and infinite confidence, marched across the path of my car. From the other side of the road, another car also stopped and we all waited while the little family completed their trip. The geese must have been doing this trek several times a day and they appeared to accept the cars without any fear. All glistening feathers, they extended trust and the drivers in their cars responded. The geese lived safely in their glass house. It was a real life magical moment for me.

I liked this particular story, but I have no idea who the narrator is. All my theories are getting shot down. Ah, well....

Harriet

It seems as if she has shown us the mighty hunters whether it be man or beast, the aged cat licking her chops as she watches the Quail or whether it be the reprobates that "hunted" by stealing. The pursuit goes on and man and beast ferret about stalking something!!!

I loved your story Harriet about the geese. I, too, had that wonderful few moments of pleasure as I watched a mama bobcat lead her threee kits across the reoad. Like your road three of us stopped as she ceremoniously strutted across it as if she hadn't a care or a fear in the world.

R is for Red Pony

I loved this story and cheered our heroine on as she begins her new adventure with her new horse. Arthritis and Stan--- be damned!

I'm around but in lurking mode for the moment while I try to catch up on my reading of the book.

Summer has just barely begun and like always I'm already longing for the brisk cold of winter. Actually I would like the daily temperature to be right in between the too hot of summer and the cold of winter. Right now it is too hot for my brain to work.

Andy, Joan, everyone...I'm having an extremely active day and I'll try to talk about the Red Pony tonight. I DO want to comment on it. I'm definitely still here.

Harriet

Hello all. I'm lurking here, checking things out a bit, but just haven't had time to get on the computer. I apologize for not participating more. Hope to catch up on the readings and be back soon. -Keene

Joan, what is interesting is that in the first story Asp the characters are a retired couple living in New Mexico named Helena and Stan, who is always on the computer. The Helena and Stan in the Red Pony sound like the same people, but they are living in a different place. Puzzling. Or is there a Rio Grande in New Mexico too?

I'm amusing myself by going through the book to see which stories have the same characters in them.

I like each story but most times have no idea as to what to say about them.

The Rio Grande River begins in SW Colorado, flows south through New Mexico, through Santa Fe and Albuquerque, all the way through the state before turning eastward to become the Texas/Mexico border and flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mary

I loved all your posts. They added layers of enjoyment to my reading of Red Pony. Thanks to Nellie and Mary, I reread Asp and Red Pony together and I enjoyed both of them much more than I would have by reading them as separate entities.

Now I see Helena and Stan as familiar characters living in a well defined geographical area. Joan has always maintained that there's a prevailing order that runs through this book. I do agree although the author certainly trusts in the patience of her readers to an extraordinary degree. It's a puzzlement to try to figure out who the people are, and how they connect...if they do.

Stan comes into clearer focus in Red Pony. He uses his computer and taxes to keep the world AND his wife, Helena away. I've reconsidered whatever sympathy I initially felt for our computer addict. He's only half alive, and he's a mean natured, cold guy to boot. I have strong negative feelings against anyone who can't empathize with the dreams of a spouse. Even if we don't agree with those dreams, it's still possible to acknowledge them and share in the pleasure they provide.

"Why don't you LISTEN to me?" Helena asks Stan in ASP.

Well, who DOES listen to Helena? Even when she gets gifts, they are selected in an impersonal way, with no knowledge or care for her real preferences or tastes. Her contributions to their daily life are trivialized. The dog food remains in the car because her husband attaches no urgency or importance to her requests.

Yet Helena still retains her ability to feel intense pleasure from the beauty of natural things and the sweetness of a loving animal. In a way she has always been independent of her husband because he can't touch her pleasure in llife or affect her basically "up" temperament permanently.

When Helena buys her horse, and walks out on Stan while he's scolding her, I think of Nora in Ibsen's Doll House. I cheered for her too, Andy. Even as she wonders if Stan is right, her spirits lift at the sight of the moon over the mountains.

You can't keep Helena down.

Harriet

A moody tale...

The winter invaded the darkness and she, perhaps frozen into terror by the loneliness, contributed to her own destruction. The people on the boat also contributed to their own destruction by freezing into inaction at a crucial moment. Then, is indecisiveness an unforgiveable sin?

How many levels of difference attach to suicide by faulty judgement like the people on the boat, and suicide by random impulse? Both instances involve fear. Is it the intention that makes the significant difference? She feels alien in her world. "Why can't they understand," she thinks, "how easy it is to get lost?"

I found this to be a perceptive story of telescoped time and despair mixed with hope. The sea lion was her connection with reality, I thought. People were not her bridge back into the world at that point in her illness, but the sea lion with the intimate sound of his breathing provided uncritical company and proof of life. Like you, Joan, I felt the sea lion should have been the marker in this story.

Andy, have a great trip. You will be missed. I'm enjoying your discussion very much. I hope you have a chance to look in during your vacation? Joan, it sounds as if we're continuing to move along? If so, I'm glad.

A safe and enjoyable trip, Andy!

Harriet

Good points, Joan.

I find myself trying to put together past history from the other stories where, as in this story, I assume the narrator was Gene. Isn't it frustrating, never knowing for sure if we're connecting accurately with the past incidents of the correct characters?

At one point in another story, it was mentioned how upset Gene was, (if it WAS she?) when her husband left her. The ranch was her preferred environment but, even so, it provided a solitary enclosure bordered with too much work, too few human distractions, and too much time to think.

Did she mean to hurt herself? I believe she did because....the doctor who takes care of her afterward says of her complaints of pain, "She should have thought of that before." Also..."She began to understand her father's anger, the contempt that separates the living from the dead."

Yet, even though it WAS deliberate, I felt it was also a random impulse that she prefers not to repeat. She does ultimately want to survive and thrive. In her recovery, she is terrified of any other accidents, eager to be understood by those who could NEVER really understand, willing to leave the dangerous isolation of the ranch even though she is humiliated by her need for her father's help. She is also deeply concerned for the survival of the boat victims.

Is there a reason for the insertion of the boat incidents? I believe she identified with the terror that the ones who refused to jump suffered. She understands a fear that freezes the essence of a personality and robs one of who he really is. And she also understands the damning incomprehension of the rescuers. "We TOLD them to jump," says a rescuer, his voice flat with disgust. "They wouldn't go, I don't know why." SHE understands why...and feels separated from the normal world of ordinary emotions.

I saw several different kinds of sirens in this story. First there were the legendary sirens who lured sailors to destruction with promises of sweetness. She listened to them initially. Then there was the physical siren that tentatively drew her out of her apartment into the world. And finally there was the symbolic siren call of the sea lion, it's breathing and freedom in the water calling her back to LIFE.

Harriet

I felt TURTLE was a treat...a feel-good story. The young couple, usually so careful with their money splurged more than they could afford for the care and nurture of a turtle. Won't they make loving parents one day?

Many a time I've wondered whether some repair job that I was billed for had been done correctly. It tickled my funny bone when the husband and wife wondered whether the healthy post-operative turtle that they brought home from the vet was the same as their original turtle. After all, how could they tell the difference if the turtle had been replaced?

Could the lesson here be that some things that we have no power over have to be taken on trust in this world?

---

In URSUS there's a lot of themes that don't quite come together for me. The story is called URSUS HORRIBILIS, and fearful thoughts about predatory bears run through the dreams of the girl. Despite this, both mother and daughter regard bears and the wilds of nature with fascination and affection.

Mother and daughter move in an aura of predatory violence each autumn in hunting camp. The men in the camp are predators and the slaughtered animals provide the stench of blood. The daughter's first period provokes anxieties in which she fears that the scent of HER blood will make her liable to be attacked by a bear. It's more likely that her increasing physical maturity will draw the interest of the equally dangerous hunters. Eat or be eaten? Kill or be killed? Predation runs through this story.

The incident of the homeless man who was attacked by the bear puzzles me. The mother who is usually generous has refused food to this man before he dies. Then, in a dream, the daughter narrowly escapes a bear attack and awakens with the guilty knowledge that her mother was in the clutches of the bear. Why introduce this sub-theme of guilt in the story?

There's a lot of puzzles here.

Harriet, I found Turtle to be a sweet little story too. I did find a turtle to be a strange choice of wedding gift. It also makes me think about pets like turtles where one looks so much like another that you cannot tell them apart -it seems not easy to love something like that.

I like the 'not a pet, but an investment' ending. I think all our pets are investments because we spend a lot of money on them. But they are also more than that; they are loved members of the family -and that is what that little turtle in the story is.

Hi Nellie. Many years ago our young son had a gerbil that would daintily eat seeds while perched on the palm of his hand. It would play with him on a table, jumping in and out of his hand and seemed fearless with people. It thrived to a venerable age for a gerbil and then sickened

Like the characters in TURTLE, we wondered...does a vet treat a gerbil? We took the gerbil to a vet anyway. The vet reached into the tank to pick it up...the elderly gerbil hunched away from the strange hand and new scent...and then keeled over!

The upset vet said that the gerbil had expired, possibly from a combination of fear and old age. Nellie, how right you are about even the unlikeliest pet becoming a valued member of the family. We went home stunned at how our attempts to help had gone awry, The task of telling our son was still ahead of us. Remembering the event is STILL an evocative experience.

VULTURE is another tender story. A death turns into an affirmation of life and the dark symbol of the vulture gives way to the vital, shining giant fish. I thought it was an "up" story because it always pointed out how life surrounds the man, even in his unsettled state of loss. I loved the surprise ending of this story.

WATCHDOG introduces us to the casual kindness and goodness of which people can be capable. It's a tale about overcoming childhood fears and the awareness and generosity of strangers.There's another feel-good ending to this story and a wonderful final sentence.

I do have to concede that, whatever I may feel about the unresolved ambiguities of this book, the writing is quite lovely.

Harriet

Joan, the implication is that he had the physical care and presence of his lover all to himself through the final illness, but with stunning speed, the family of his lover take away all that remains, depriving him of even the rituals that help survivors adjust to the death of a loved one. The man is looking for acceptance of his loss and changed circumstances in a new environment.

I liked the images of life all around the man. The Mexicans greet him in Spanish as he, a stranger, walks through the town. He is newly aware of his own physicality and wholeness as he awakens from the nightmarish dream of disability.

You question why he went on the fishing boat at all? I think he needed a battle that he could WIN. I thought that the pain in his muscles as he struggled with the fish offered a substitute for the pain within that men are often reluctant to express.

"His muscles quivered and burned, but he leaned into the pain as if the pain itself could hold him, like a wall of stone...no longer wishing for the days that should have been."

I felt that to THIS man, winning a battle meant the preservation of life rather than its destruction. He could not control what others on that fishing boat did, but he had arranged that when he nodded, a "prearranged signal, HIS catch would be freed. He might be enjoying only a momentary surge of relief, but it is a beginning.

I loved reading your feelings. I always feel that it's the differences in interpretations that lend variety and pleasure to every discussion. Thinking about your questions offered an exciting insight into the different ways people see things.

Was the vulture the prime marker for the story? Or was it really the resilient, shining vitality of the fish? A matter of individual perception, perhaps?

Hope all is going well with you.

Harriet

Joan, I'm not an interpreter of dreams -I just dream them -but I think that the dreams of skiing down to where the bears are may indicate that the narrator feels out of control around bears.

I liked the piece where mother tells of her meeting with the bear in Alaska and looking it in the eyes and I think she saw pure raw nature in that moment as symbolized by the bear.

The mention of transients going through the garbage looking for food made me think that bears do the same thing. Did the bear kill the transient because it sensed the man was competition for food and ultimately survival.

This story is like a novel in miniature; it is so full of things to think about.

Vulture seems to me to be a story about letting go of things that hurt, and how that can be an almost physical battle. I'm trying to place the vultures...I would say they represent the family of his lover and who appeared like vultures and took away the dead body.

More later...

I had a whole different take on that dream in URSUS. I assumed that the girl was afraid of the predatory mother bear at the bottom of the slope because the bear might act protectively in defense of her cubs and attack an intruder. I thought her dread for her mother stemmed from the fear that her mother, right behind her on the slope, was now endangered by the bears...yet she couldn't go back to help her. I reread that particular passage again and it's funny, but all of our interpretations can work. Nellie, that story IS like a novel in miniature. It's amazing when I consider how brief it actually is.

Yes! The vulture represented his lover's family who removed the body with such haste. Sounds right to me, Nellie. And I agree that letting go of things that hurt CAN be akin to a physical battle.

In WATCHDOG, mama is a tippler, shoving away responsibility for all her children, but passing some of her own relinquished burden to the older two. Adam has written about the effects of alcoholic, broken families more than once?

They are poor, though mama seems to find a bit of extra money for a luxury commodity like perfume for herself. For the children, she buys Christmas gifts that are basic essentials...the stuff that she would HAVE to purchase for them anyway. The children are made to feel that their poverty and lack of parenting is, in some way, a flaw that is THEIR fault.

Adam has entwined Sissy's fear of the neighbor's dogs with the culminating episode of kindness to these children.

Harriet

Congratulations to Harriet and Andy for a successful discussion, and a really beautiful header, and thanks for all the wonderful posts. Feel free to continue the discussion, but I also wanted to remind you all that the SeniorNet Fiction Reader's Series continues tomorrow with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Please come on in and join us there too!

Jane DeNeve "---Grapes of Wrath ~ by John Steinbeck ~Book Club Online ~ 7/1/02" 6/30/02 9:43am

Joan, sometimes a concept rattles formlessly around in the back of my head, but I'm not aware enough to recognize or acknowledge its existence. You have a gift for zeroing in on such an essential truth and verbalizing it clearly.

I've been wondering exactly what Adam's intent was in this book too, and what she would think of all our conjectures. Sometimes it occurs to me that she might be surprised that we're trying to extract universal truths from her vignettes. Wouldn't it be funny if her goal was, like the finger-blistering gymnastics of a Chopin etude, to exercise the skill of conveying emotion through the written word because she loved the craft of writing? And that she used the stories of her friends, perhaps the intimacies spun before the fireplace on a long winter night, as her means? Did Adam feel that the namelessness of her characters gave them an "Everyman" quality? If so, did she succeed with that literary device?

I thought that the common denominator of the stories was love. Adams writing is filled with the love of people, their foibles, and their attempts to survive the experience of life. Everyone, even the characters who are making a mess of things, are so intensely human and Adam seems to try to look at the world through the eyes of a variety of personalities.

I've also been thinking how special and wonderful have been the comments of everyone who contributed to this discussion. What thoughtful, perceptive people you all are...Alf, our original DL for all but the last few days, Joan. Nellie, everyone who has shared their thoughts...this book forum provides such a unique opportunity to communicate with the minds and hearts of other people.

I'll respond to the most recent posts and leave this forum open for a few more days. Tomorrow is July l, and the beginning of the month often brings new commitments for many of us. Joan, Nellie, thank you for riding with this particular discussion right to the end. You've been great and I sure appreciate you both!

Harriet

I just want to say how sorry I am that I haven't participated in this discussion as much as I would have liked. My family situation this month has been vey demanding and I simply haven't had much computer time. I will go back and catch up on your posts as well as finish reading the book when I have a chance. I hope to see you in other discussions in the future.

Keene

Harriet, Joan, ALF, I have enjoyed being in this discussion. I couldn't spend as much time on it as I would have liked because of the Galileo's Daughter discussion I was leading.

You all provided me with interesting insights into the stories. Thank you!

Well okay then, Joan!

Going back to your point in WATCHDOG, children who are not protected by their parents often have a distinctive "look" and "attitude" about them. They're coping with life and solving problems with childish finesse because they're on their own so much. They make decisions by themselves that most children would automatically relay to mommy or daddy. They dress themselves in what is available, and their hygiene may not meet the same standards as their more protected friends. Maybe, for that reason, they were noticeable to the colonel and his wife and that couple used Christmas as an excuse to give the children gifts that their mother could not consider "charity."

I felt that the couple had planned toys of some sort for their little neighbors for a while, and no, I don't think mama was involved either. Sad...

In X, THE UNKNOWN FACTOR, I was fascinated by the characterization of the woman's husband, a man who extracts endless information from others although he never asks a direct question. "If a feller wanted to..., how would a feller go about...?" A marvelous word portrait, I thought. It stacks right up there with that jewel of a delineation in TURTLE of the know-it-all woman who makes an instant diagnosis of the turtle's ailment in the Vet's office. "It's a turd," she pronounced with terse authority. Can there be anyone who hasn't met, at some point in their life, just such an expert-in-all-things?

I loved a few of Adam's phrases in this story. There was your favorite, the ducks, "like handfuls of cloves tossed in the sky." I was also blown away by her description of the blue autumn sky against the yellow of the aspen leaves..."an emptiness between we can't explain, a hollow in the universe."

Neat writing!

YELLOW JACKET is a perceptive portrait of a lonely child. Did you get stopped short by the opening lines about children enduring "being in love" with adults who are always absenting themselves for incomprehensible errands? I sure did.

Sensitive Melissa...tuned in to her parents, to others, even to the mentally ill man transmitting his telepathic waves to his alien protectors. I wonder, is this a portrait of our author's childhood temperament? Did SHE tune in to people with a writer's eye also from her earliest years? Her expensive, unhappy birthday party is made chaotic by visiting bees. Mom and dad don't know what to do, but the strange, sick man is perfectly calm.

There is a meeting of minds in this unlikely combination of characters. The mentally sick man understands the sense of natural order that Melissa needs...and Melissa understands HIM. She knows he needs shelter from his amorphous terrors, and she provides it underneath her birthday table.

Harriet

Here is a link to an interview with Christina Adam:

Conversation with Christina Adam

And here is one with a short story of her's with a bit of info about her on the bottom:

Wildlife in Los Angeles

Nellie, those are wonderful links. Thanks a lot.

My husband is having an Endoscopy this morning and I will be back on-line later today.

Harriet

I think Melissa finds the chaos of her party more difficult than the environment under the table with the man. How strange it is that neither mommy or daddy pull her out from under the table. They're more involved with their guests than with Melissa?

I didn't see Melissa in any danger of hearing voices herself, She's smart and sensitive, but still essentially a child in her thinking. If she could have truly read minds, wouldn't she have had an easier time with the other children? No, Melissa has learned to read and watch out for NEGATIVE vibrations so she can avoid pain...or sometimes merely brace herself for a coming ordeal. She recognizes the pain of others because she's an expert on the subject. Maybe she derives her strength in helping someone weaker than herself, like the telepathic man?

Did you figure out a lesson. Joan, Nelly? I'm just not sure.

ZOO was worth waiting for. A moving story about a life uprooted. Mirna was a woman who was constantly waiting to grow up and begin her true life. She kept careful track of the details in her life that she always hoped were important, but didn't notice how much of her life was really invested in her teaching and in other people's youngsters. She had her idyllic day at the zoo with her favorite class, her gifts and mementos from them, but at the end of the school year the children went home to their own families and she "sat alone in her chair, forgotten."

When Mirna took on the head mistress, she must have known where it was leading. She understood the woman's shallow temperament. After all, she had copied the words of T.S. Eliot into her journals years before, like a cautionary warning. "Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important."

Was she finally ashamed of her own fears about life? Was she longing to start her life over by provoking her boss into a confrontation? Suicide by being fired? Was there not a less drastic way to begin living more fully? Couldn't she have talked to that self-important, image-conscious head mistress privately?

Did Mirna's act stem out of a need to feel important herself? She might have been right about the janitor and the gun, but was she equally right in the way she pressed her point? I've been trying to put this together and I would love some of your input.

When Mirna turned her car north, having abandoned her life with such ferocious suddenness, is that an uplifting ending? Was she starting anew or running away?

Harriet

What a joy it is to read your comments, Joan. You tied up things with a golden ribbon. You said that Melissa, in YELLOW JACKET, is hungry for parenting from those "alien" grownups she lives with. Such neat packaging, bringing Melissa, her parents and the telepathic man into a conjoined relationship that makes SENSE. Oh yes, I agree! Thanks for the insight.

Did you feel that ZOO was a very telescoped story? I did! Almost all of the events take place in a few hours. Of course there are flashbacks in time as Mirna reminisces and packs, but the real events take place with feverish speed.

On the way home from the faculty conference where Mirna was fired, she picks up empty cartons to pack her belongings. By midnight she has left her apartment, her car loaded with the packed cartons, her landlord already given notice that she will not return. Mirna is in a frenzy to leave her unhappy life. That's a MAJOR upheaval.

Wouldn't most people stop to commiserate with a friend? Allow the dust to settle a bit and try to work out a few plans? Take a few weeks off before rendering herself homeless, and enjoy the Santa Monica sunshine? Why did she give up her APARTMENT? Seems to me that a woman living in her car has fewer job options?

I agree that a youthful seventeen year old student like Katherine, from a privileged background, can enjoy the luxury of "no college plans" because time is her friend, and her family and home are available for back-up. Yet, Mirna must be in her thirties now...is she in a similar position? "We live our lives from the outside," says Sartre. Now hopefully, Mirna can get "inside" her dreams, graduating into HER real life as each class of her students did?

She's taking an extraordinary path with unusual speed and courage. Is the argument with her boss, and the loss of her job, the not-so-small thing that will save her? I wish Mirna good fortune. I have mixed feelings about her decision and I sure hope she'll find her new life.

Harriet

Wonderful comments, Joan.

I'll keep the discussion open a few more days before archiving it. Again, I thank everyone who participated, shared thoughts or even merely read along with us.

Hope we'll all meet again in another discussion sometime soon.

Harriet