What a story Rebecca!
And so she came back again and at that point you could keep her, or? Please
say : Yes!
Anny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: "Power"/too late to be a snap, oh well
> Traps: sentimentality, or what I did--a kind of
> >>hardassed tone with somewhat extraneous material that doesn't get at
> >>what I began to get at only midway through, the action itself minus
> >>set-ups, etc.
>
> Well, I kept thinking about this traps of sentimentality and how true it
is with
> dog stories, and perhaps your question who hasn't been owned by a dog?
I've
> always had dogs and feel sometimes attended by an absence in now not
having
> one, but this issue of sentimentality reminds me of this dog that I had
when I
> was a kid. She showed up at our door one day, a black and white collie,
the
> oldfashioned type with the broader muzzle, not the pencilpoint muzzle that
was
> introduced by interbreeding with greyhounds, and I named her Sam. She was
> incredibly smart; the sort of dog that would hear me walking home from
school
> a half mile away and would want to be let out to come racing to meet me.
She
> wasn't spayed and eventually had five puppies which we gave away, though
in
> about three months, the people who had adopted one of them brought him
> back. As usual, in a couple of months, my father decided to move and since
my
> parents were broke all the time, they decided they couldn't afford to have
her
> spayed and that if we took her with us, there'd be more puppies, and how
to
> find a place to rent etc? the usual implacable logic of the adultworld, so
they
> decided 'the best thing' would be to take her out into the surrounding
> countryside, many sheep farms etc, and leave her and the puppy out at some
> farmer's house where some kindly sheepherder would take her in. So we were
all
> miserably loaded in the car and drove for some fifty miles into the
countryside
> and when my parents saw a hopeful looking farmhouse, they let her and the
> puppy out. I remember looking out the rear window of the car and knowing
that
> she would come back, for she wasn't following the car, she had turned and
was
> flying like an arrow across the Wyoming scrub brush flatness as if she
knew
> where she was going, and wondering for days afterwards why she hadn't,
that
> something must have happened along that flight back. It was only later
that my
> mother told me that Sam had come back, after we'd gone to sleep, and that
my
> father had driven her 40 miles out in the opposite direction and she'd
come
> back. During the night he made three trips into the surrounding
countryside,
> each trip becoming shorter as he lost faith in the idea of such a thing
working,
> and she came back. So since it was approaching morning and I was likely to
> wake up and see her there, they called the animal control people who came
and
> picked her up. Though they had also picked up another dog and somehow
> during that stop, my dog escaped from the car and came back again. I have,
> once or twice, tried to write about this but have never managed it, but,
yes, I am
> still owned by that dog,
>
> Best,
>
> Rebecca
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:17:19 -0500
> >From: Rebecca Seiferle <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: "Power"/too late to be a snap, oh well
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >>I wish the beginning worked as well as the end. It was about a very
> >>strange, "defining" moment and it is very hard to describe the interplay
> >>between human and animal because all the thinking for the animal is
> >>assumed by the human. Traps: sentimentality, or what I did--a kind of
> >>hardassed tone with somewhat extraneous material that doesn't get at
> >>what I began to get at only midway through, the action itself minus
> >>set-ups, etc.
> >
> >Yes, Ken, I think it does seem a "very strange 'defining' moment', that's
there,
> >and perhaps the trouble with the beginning is the staging, where you
start out
> >from a rather distanced view "Grant this" and then zero in, incremently.
You
> >could try something like this,
> >
> >Chain your intellect to the fencepost and let it bare its teeth at Old
Yeller
> >or So Dear To My Heart. Know you are wearing a neck chain and your teeth
will
> >not
> >reach.
> >
> >This is a dog story, but the dog is not shaggy, he combines Rottweiler,
> >Shepherd, and jerk,
> >which means there are no apologies here save to the insulted and the
injured.
> >
> >Grant this: He is the woman's dog, but I have lately adopted him to the
heart.
> >He is not an Ours because when it comes to this dog there is no Us.
> >
> >A kind of interweaving, instead of the view moving in upon the 'action'
by
> >marked delineations, and I hope you don't mind the suggestion! And I
wouldn't
> >worry about the line being from Meister Eckhardt via some Landinsky;
since
> it's
> >that sort of line, perhaps because as you say Landinsky is the sort of
> 'translator
> >who makes everyone sound like himself' it sounds like a line from anyone,
as
> in
> >the sense, of those medieval morality plays, "Everyman".
> >
> >best,
> >
> >Rebecca
> >
> >
> >>I wish the beginning worked as well as the end. It was about a very
> >>strange, "defining" moment and it is very hard to describe the interplay
> >>between human and animal because all the thinking for the animal is
> >>assumed by the human. Traps: sentimentality, or what I did--a kind of
> >>hardassed tone with somewhat extraneous material that doesn't get at
> >>what I began to get at only midway through, the action itself minus
> >>set-ups, etc.
> >
> >
> >---- Original message ----
> >>Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:01:34 -0500
> >>From: Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]>
> >>Subject: Re: "Power"/too late to be a snap, oh well
> >>To: [log in to unmask]
> >>
> >>Rebecca Seiferle wrote:
> >>
> >>>I like your snap, Ken, so honest to so many not always pleasant
> >>>intersecting realities and agree with Andrew about the fine turn of the
end,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>What is wrong with him, I sometimes wonder? He does not thrive on
> >>>>anger. He is forgiving. He is not human.
> >>>>Love does that.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>a real questioning of being,
> >>>
> >>>best,
> >>>
> >>>Rebecca
> >>>
> >>>
> >>I wish the beginning worked as well as the end. It was about a very
> >>strange, "defining" moment and it is very hard to describe the interplay
> >>between human and animal because all the thinking for the animal is
> >>assumed by the human. Traps: sentimentality, or what I did--a kind of
> >>hardassed tone with somewhat extraneous material that doesn't get at
> >>what I began to get at only midway through, the action itself minus
> >>set-ups, etc.
> >>
> >>"Love Does That." I hate to admit this, but I stole the words from a
> >>poem about an overburdened donkey fed by a passer-by; I think it was
> >>written by Master Eckhard filtered through a guy named Daniel Ladinsky,
> >>who I've seen condemned as (gasp) New Age and, worse, as a translator
> >>who makes everyone sound like himself. I wish I could find the original
> >>poem which I remember as a sweet, simple look at the kind of
> >>communication I tried to describe.
> >>
> >>ken
> >>
> >>--
> >>Kenneth Wolman
> >>Proposal Development Department
> >>Room SW334
> >>Sarnoff Corporation
> >>609-734-2538
>
|