Jeff
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Posts: 160
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Post by Jeff on Feb 26, 2019 13:02:09 GMT -5
In my reading of TTOTC (as a book, regardless of its relation to the poem puzzle), Blue Jeans and Hush Puppies Again and Teachers with Ropes form the first pair in a series of morality stories that follow My War for Me and form the latter part of the book; each of these pairs are thematically related and/or contain connected images. After Fenn explicitly conveys his "answers" in My War for Me, this series of paired chapters addresses and expands on these messages. As it relates to these two chapters, the message conveyed is that experience, although potentially difficult or painful, provides the best education. In the first of these chapters, Fenn retires from the Air Force and he and his family move to Santa Fe to open an art gallery. As a civilian, he can dress in the blue jeans and hush puppy shoes of the chapter's title; the title could also refer to his return to his family, with blue jeans referring to his wife Peggy Jean ("jeans") and hush puppies referring to his two daughters. He describes the difficult "learning curve" and relates one of their early failures. Although a failure, it was at least "profitable" from an "educational" perspective. Note that the concept of "profit" will be a central concept in the next pair of chapters Tea with Olga and Father on the Banco. Hands on education is further and quite literally explored in the second of these chapter. Fenn describes how school children would visit his gallery and how he would teach them about art. He describes them as arriving "holding fast to a large knot in a long rope" and being told "do not touch." This signifies the constraints put on the children, which is opposite of Fenn’s teaching style: "please touch, we are responsible." Furthermore, by immersing the children in the art through multiple senses, they could best use their imagination to understand things. To illustrate the initial "flat" learning curve that Fenn experienced as a new art dealer, he relates the sour story of a Gilbert Gaul painting. Perhaps "Gaul" was chosen because it is a homophone of "gall" or bile, a bitter substance and a perfect analogy for this experience. Perhaps further support for this idea exists in the comment that the painting was sold to him by an art dealer from Amarillo--as "amarillo" means "yellow" in Spanish, a color often associated with bile (also, Fenn had the "gall" to buy it, seeing as he had to "borrow the money." All I will say is: Ugh.). The painting, depicting a gruesome Civil War scene, did not sell. He trades it for a "small French watercolor" depicting "fairies dancing" and laments that he has "come to that." By choosing to use a "French" painting he has used another homophone--now more strictly a homonym--of "Gaul." Perhaps the subject matter of the two paintings and his lament about "com[ing] to that" serve to juxtapose Fenn's past career as Air Force fighter pilot with his new, somewhat more dainty (perhaps someone else can suggest a better adjective) vocation of art dealer. A partly unresolved question remains in my mind: "is there a deeper significance to the connection between the two 'Gilbert’ artists--'Gilbert Gaul’ of the first of these chapters and the 'Gilbert Stuart’ of the second?" Or perhaps the sole purpose is to convey the idea that the "learning curve" wasn't always "flat," seeing as Fenn went from effectively selling one "Gilbert" painting for "$1,500" to having another "Gilbert" painting hang on his gallery's wall for one hundred times that price--a cool (and somewhat absurd to my less "fruitful" mind) "$150,000."
Remember: these are just my thoughts. Off target? Possibly. Probably.
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Post by goldwatch on Feb 27, 2019 15:06:00 GMT -5
Kelly and Zoe as hush puppies, lol.
Somewhere there's a story about how they were always talking on the phone and other typical kid stuff. Forrest and Peggy gave them the responsibility to handle their own affairs and they responded well. Much like the kids at the gallery.
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Post by zaphod73491 on Feb 27, 2019 22:26:34 GMT -5
In my reading of TTOTC (as a book, regardless of its relation to the poem puzzle), Blue Jeans and Hush Puppies Again and Teachers with Ropes form the first pair in a series of morality stories that follow My War for Me and form the latter part of the book; each of these pairs are thematically related and/or contain connected images. After Fenn explicitly conveys his "answers" in My War for Me, this series of paired chapters addresses and expands on these messages. As it relates to these two chapters, the message conveyed is that experience, although potentially difficult or painful, provides the best education. In the first of these chapters, Fenn retires from the Air Force and he and his family move to Santa Fe to open an art gallery. As a civilian, he can dress in the blue jeans and hush puppy shoes of the chapter's title; the title could also refer to his return to his family, with blue jeans referring to his wife Peggy Jean ("jeans") and hush puppies referring to his two daughters. He describes the difficult "learning curve" and relates one of their early failures. Although a failure, it was at least "profitable" from an "educational" perspective. Note that the concept of "profit" will be a central concept in the next pair of chapters Tea with Olga and Father on the Banco. Hands on education is further and quite literally explored in the second of these chapter. Fenn describes how school children would visit his gallery and how he would teach them about art. He describes them as arriving "holding fast to a large knot in a long rope" and being told "do not touch." This signifies the constraints put on the children, which is opposite of Fenn’s teaching style: "please touch, we are responsible." Furthermore, by immersing the children in the art through multiple senses, they could best use their imagination to understand things. To illustrate the initial "flat" learning curve that Fenn experienced as a new art dealer, he relates the sour story of a Gilbert Gaul painting. Perhaps "Gaul" was chosen because it is a homophone of "gall" or bile, a bitter substance and a perfect analogy for this experience. Perhaps further support for this idea exists in the comment that the painting was sold to him by an art dealer from Amarillo--as "amarillo" means "yellow" in Spanish, a color often associated with bile (also, Fenn had the "gall" to buy it, seeing as he had to "borrow the money." All I will say is: Ugh.). The painting, depicting a gruesome Civil War scene, did not sell. He trades it for a "small French watercolor" depicting "fairies dancing" and laments that he has "come to that." By choosing to use a "French" painting he has used another homophone--now more strictly a homonym--of "Gaul." Perhaps the subject matter of the two paintings and his lament about "com[ing] to that" serve to juxtapose Fenn's past career as Air Force fighter pilot with his new, somewhat more dainty (perhaps someone else can suggest a better adjective) vocation of art dealer. A partly unresolved question remains in my mind: "is there a deeper significance to the connection between the two 'Gilbert’ artists--'Gilbert Gaul’ of the first of these chapters and the 'Gilbert Stuart’ of the second?" Or perhaps the sole purpose is to convey the idea that the "learning curve" wasn't always "flat," seeing as Fenn went from effectively selling one "Gilbert" painting for "$1,500" to having another "Gilbert" painting hang on his gallery's wall for one hundred times that price--a cool (and somewhat absurd to my less "fruitful" mind) "$150,000."
Remember: these are just my thoughts. Off target? Possibly. Probably.
Another great post! With your talent for making connections, I'm mildly surprised you didn't snuff out the connection between "hush puppies" and a dead dog in the loathesome Gilbert Gaul Civil War artwork that Forrest had trouble fencing. Yellow is everywhere, yet folks continue to search in NM and CO. No clue is big enough for some I guess. |
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Jeff
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Posts: 160
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Post by Jeff on Feb 28, 2019 11:07:22 GMT -5
Zaphod: Hush puppies, dead dog. Of course...that one's a smoking gun. Me myself, I’m pretty nearsighted when it comes to wordplay.
I'll have to go back and look at the color angle. I haven't been able to get those dots to connect in any sort of semi-coherent way yet. At least where I'm at, which is mostly just TTOTC. Do you have one or two examples of subtle yellowness that tickle you? Of course there are the obvious ones like Yellowstone Yellowstone Yellowstone, the gold this and the gold that, the Cadillac, lemon soda, pineapple pies and cakes, fall leaves, sun, perhaps agate, meadowlarks, maybe an odd flower or fish here or there...and, with a somewhat incredulous step, what we can reasonably assume was that kidney cancer that got him down: probably a golden yellow renal cell carcinoma. I'm pretty agnostic about the character and meaning of the poem puzzle in my relatively early stage of this disease, so I'll leave thoughts of reasonable search areas to you and others that have been here longer than me. |
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Post by goldilocks on Feb 28, 2019 11:29:22 GMT -5
Zaphod: Hush puppies, dead dog. Of course...that one's a smoking gun. Me myself, I’m pretty nearsighted when it comes to wordplay.
I'll have to go back and look at the color angle. I haven't been able to get those dots to connect in any sort of semi-coherent way yet. At least where I'm at, which is mostly just TTOTC. Do you have one or two examples of subtle yellowness that tickle you? Of course there are the obvious ones like Yellowstone Yellowstone Yellowstone, the gold this and the gold that, the Cadillac, lemon soda, pineapple pies and cakes, fall leaves, sun, perhaps agate, meadowlarks, maybe an odd flower or fish here or there...and, with a somewhat incredulous step, what we can reasonably assume was that kidney cancer that got him down: probably a golden yellow renal cell carcinoma. I'm pretty agnostic about the character and meaning of the poem puzzle in my relatively early stage of this disease, so I'll leave thoughts of reasonable search areas to you and others that have been here longer than me. Jeff, you have made some pretty astute observations for someone who hasn't been here very long. Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts. |
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Post by zaphod73491 on Feb 28, 2019 13:51:32 GMT -5
Hi Jeff: don't forget to grab every banana. A few others: SB 123 -- the little piglets eating daffodils; the three store-bought lures to the right of Pickles in SB 113; the erroneous use of lemon juice instead of tomato juice in TFTW pg. 96. MW Q&A (7/3/2014): "I wish someone would ask me a question that I would feel comfortable answering, like what color is a daffodil. f"
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Post by goldwatch on Feb 28, 2019 14:26:46 GMT -5
Interesting topic. You all want to see something that's kind of weird? I looked up "Old Yeller" because I thought of that but never saw the movie. The story was based on a real life dog named "Rattler", a border collie. The story was also based in Texas, and "Rattler" lived in Texas. But here's the weird part... Look at the shadow at the bottom of the picture....   LOL This is too good to pass up on posting. |
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Post by goldilocks on Feb 28, 2019 14:38:06 GMT -5
Hi Jeff: don't forget to grab every banana. A few others: SB 123 -- the little piglets eating daffodils; the three store-bought lures to the right of Pickles in SB 113; the erroneous use of lemon juice instead of tomato juice in TFTW pg. 96. MW Q&A (7/3/2014): "I wish someone would ask me a question that I would feel comfortable answering, like what color is a daffodil. f" Zap, I think Jeff likes the color yellow judging from his avatar:) Don't forget the gold nuggets as big as hens eggs and my favorite yellow meaning cowardly or afraid. |
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Post by goldwatch on Feb 28, 2019 15:42:52 GMT -5
I did an extensive search for that Gilbert Gaul Painting with the dead dog, but I never found anything on it.
I did find someone who posted a question about it on a art dealers site, and that dealer didn't know of it. Probably another searcher.
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Post by zaphod73491 on Feb 28, 2019 21:46:17 GMT -5
I did an extensive search for that Gilbert Gaul Painting with the dead dog, but I never found anything on it. I did find someone who posted a question about it on a art dealers site, and that dealer didn't know of it. Probably another searcher. Hi Goldwatch: surely you've seen that black and white Gilbert Gaul painting? If not, I'll send you the link when I get home. It's not quite as Forrest described it. Actually, it's quite different. The dog isn't on the bridge bleeding on the boards, there is no smoking gun, and in fact it isn't 100% clear the dog is bleeding at all, though it is dead. |
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Post by zaphod73491 on Feb 28, 2019 21:48:34 GMT -5
Hi Jeff: don't forget to grab every banana. A few others: SB 123 -- the little piglets eating daffodils; the three store-bought lures to the right of Pickles in SB 113; the erroneous use of lemon juice instead of tomato juice in TFTW pg. 96. MW Q&A (7/3/2014): "I wish someone would ask me a question that I would feel comfortable answering, like what color is a daffodil. f" Zap, I think Jeff likes the color yellow judging from his avatar:) Don't forget the gold nuggets as big as hens eggs and my favorite yellow meaning cowardly or afraid. You can also add his comment (in a post on Dal's clearing up the pinon nuts misspeak) about using *butter* to get pine tar off your hands. |
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Post by goldwatch on Feb 28, 2019 23:03:28 GMT -5
I did an extensive search for that Gilbert Gaul Painting with the dead dog, but I never found anything on it. I did find someone who posted a question about it on a art dealers site, and that dealer didn't know of it. Probably another searcher. Hi Goldwatch: surely you've seen that black and white Gilbert Gaul painting? If not, I'll send you the link when I get home. It's not quite as Forrest described it. Actually, it's quite different. The dog isn't on the bridge bleeding on the boards, there is no smoking gun, and in fact it isn't 100% clear the dog is bleeding at all, though it is dead. I'd appreciate that very much, thank you. |
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Post by zaphod73491 on Mar 1, 2019 0:21:29 GMT -5
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Jeff
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Posts: 160
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Post by Jeff on Mar 1, 2019 10:49:29 GMT -5
Goldilocks (there's a bit of yellow), thank you for the kind words. That avatar is something stock that Proboards suggested. My wife will attest (i.e. poke fun at me) that if presented with the option I'll choose blue. Ah, blue: in TTOTC, there is his father's "out of the blue," the "lapis lazuli sky," sapphires (if blue ones, it's unspecified), "5-inch bluegills," blue jeans (and perhaps Peggy Jean by extension), his state of mind after the kidney cancer diagnosis (in the vein of your yellow=cowardly thought), and then as more of a stretch perhaps some of his Air Force medals and the Cowboys.
Goldwatch (more yellow!), thanks for asking Zaphod to pull up that video (which I admit to have simply skimmed). What strikes me as the most fascinating (i.e. what I landed on serendipitous while clicking through) is the video 2006 interview with Fenn spitting out almost verbatim parts of Blue Jeans and Hush Puppies Again. Fascinating but perhaps just that: my friends turn away in embarrassment with my rehashing of a story for the umpteenth time; he may have written the story already; or he may have gone back to that video when writing the story. I'm not aware of earlier public written versions this story (such as those that exist for some of the other chapters).
Zaphod, thanks for all that yellow beyond TTOTC: especially fond of the daffodil. With yellow butter, hens' eggs, and flower...we almost have all the ingredients for a cake! I suppose one would then ask the follow-up question: but what about the second half? Why, hello stone! (So bad. I'm sorry.) In TTOTC: Yellowstone, obviously; marbles throughout My Spanish Toy Factory and with agates at the beginning of In Love with Yellowstone; presumably the grave marker in Surviving Myself and definitely the "crudely-made stone grave marker" in My War for Me; the apparent non sequitur picture and caption of "Skippy holding a rock" in The Long Ride Home; perhaps Fenn’s plane hitting a "1000-foot-high stone bluff" in My War for Me; the rocks and "small pebble" from Operation Arc Light in My War for Me; Ein stein, with stein meaning stoneware (what do I do with my grandparents steins from the old country?); Drpepperwood's recent posts about the Norman Rockwell sampling in the illustration from My Brother Being Skippy (which probably fall under a fair use appropriation, by the way), the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall in My War for Me, getting back to Goldilocks' thought train, being petrified (which we can unequivocally attribute to his feeling during Operation Arc Light as it was "the most terrifying" and can intuit at several other points, including his kidney cancer ordeal), and, more tenuously, perhaps as a holorime to "marvel."
Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts.
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Post by goldilocks on Mar 1, 2019 13:20:16 GMT -5
My last thought on yellow...I came across "yellow buses" today which were the first tour buses from West Yellowstone into YP in the 20's and 30's. This of course would be of interest to searchers up in that area. Associations are easy to draw from most any word in the book. As for stone/rock, Forrest definitely found himself between a rock and a hard place on more than once occasion. Petrified wood is interesting...wood which turns to stone over time.
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