excerpt from Conformityville
Jenkins didn’t have the patience or discipline or curiosity to listen to anyone else’s point of view but his own. Frustrated, he would cut people off mid-sentence to state his point of view. His weakness was that he couldn’t stand long-winded nappy heads like me! I meant to take advantage of his weakness and punish him with a long-winded, verbose, heavily abstract dialogue about art which was sure to make him fume.
Starting off slowly, I spoke as monotone as possible, “Attrappe - dummy -works of poets and artists contain treasures of profound wisdom. The poet and artist interpret things differently. A painting of a waterfall isn’t just a waterfall, it may ask the viewer to contemplate the idea of gravity or some other pearl of wisdom. Therefore, everyone who reads a poem or contemplates a work of art must contribute some of their own imagination towards bringing that wisdom to light.”
Heated and irritated, Jenkins folded his arms across his chest, scoffed and looked at the ceiling. With sweat buds forming on the tip of his nose, he seethed, “Jesus, let this ass be succinct and laconic this morning!”
He loosened his tie and exhaled.
“I’m sorry, but please give me a minute Mr. Jenkins. I cannot say this succinctly or laconically. To be made clear, this needs a detailed discussion, and the patient listener must suspend his surprise for a while, it’s only until his surprise has vanished that he can fully grasp the whole of my thoughts.”
“Increase son! Make haste!”
“Yes, sir, but in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel August 1914, Versonofiev relaxed and said with a tired smile: ‘Important questions always have long, tortuous answers..’
More scoffing and heavy exhaling. Jenkins couldn’t take it any longer. Hot steam seemed to be blowing from his ears. His head dripped with sweat. And his jaws seemed tired from struggling to hold a polite smile.
“I told you that I was a verbose flibbertigibbet who is misjudged because I am misunderstood, and misunderstood because men choose to skim through the book and not to think through it – a disagreeable task, because the work is dry, obscure, opposed to all ordinary notions, and moreover long-winded.”
Starting off slowly, I spoke as monotone as possible, “Attrappe - dummy -works of poets and artists contain treasures of profound wisdom. The poet and artist interpret things differently. A painting of a waterfall isn’t just a waterfall, it may ask the viewer to contemplate the idea of gravity or some other pearl of wisdom. Therefore, everyone who reads a poem or contemplates a work of art must contribute some of their own imagination towards bringing that wisdom to light.”
Heated and irritated, Jenkins folded his arms across his chest, scoffed and looked at the ceiling. With sweat buds forming on the tip of his nose, he seethed, “Jesus, let this ass be succinct and laconic this morning!”
He loosened his tie and exhaled.
“I’m sorry, but please give me a minute Mr. Jenkins. I cannot say this succinctly or laconically. To be made clear, this needs a detailed discussion, and the patient listener must suspend his surprise for a while, it’s only until his surprise has vanished that he can fully grasp the whole of my thoughts.”
“Increase son! Make haste!”
“Yes, sir, but in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel August 1914, Versonofiev relaxed and said with a tired smile: ‘Important questions always have long, tortuous answers..’
More scoffing and heavy exhaling. Jenkins couldn’t take it any longer. Hot steam seemed to be blowing from his ears. His head dripped with sweat. And his jaws seemed tired from struggling to hold a polite smile.
“I told you that I was a verbose flibbertigibbet who is misjudged because I am misunderstood, and misunderstood because men choose to skim through the book and not to think through it – a disagreeable task, because the work is dry, obscure, opposed to all ordinary notions, and moreover long-winded.”
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Victoriaii
(new)
Mar 10, 2023 08:06AM
I must start by saying that this is one of my favorite books of all time. Although it is deep and complicated and takes a lot of focus to read, I feel that there are a lot of great messages here in the author’s search for salvation for his mother's illiteracy.
reply
|
flag
