I was searching for something in my car's glove compartment last week and ran across the reciept from Webb's Auto Service for the last time I got my oil changed. Not what I was looking for, but I'd written on the back the mileage at which I'd be needing another oil change (the little sticker they put on the inside of the windshield didn't stick). I thought I might be getting close to time for a change, so I looked over from the passenger's seat at what the odometer reading was. Pre-zactly what the jotted-down mileage was! That would be: 113,421. Not bad for a 1996 car, eh?
And today I'm in the Pine Bluff library, waiting for my laptop to boot up and connect to the public wi-fi here, walking over to the stacks where Arkansas-related books are, planning to take another look at my brother Steven's poetry book (Half Life Burning, Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press, 2000), and gazing at the books as I head back to where I know Steven's book is, and what catches my eye? I mean besides the old copy of Cotton Stealing, written by "Anonymous" and published in 1866 by John B. Walsh Co., Chicago. None other than True Grit, by Charles Portis, published by Simon & Schuster in 1968! I might have ignored it (again) but for the fact that it's been in the news lately due to the Coen brothers making a new movie of it. And also, the coincidence here, the movie hits the theaters today.
Portis dedicated the book thusly: "For my mother and father". Acccording to one local wag, Bob Lancaster of the Arkansas Times, Portis created Mattie's personality and way of talking from his (Portis's) mother's personality. (That information was delivered in a moment when Lancaster was not operating so much in the wag mode.)
In A Serious Man, one coincidence is the simultaneity of Larry's and Sy's traffic accidents. Larry is not hurt in his collision, in spite of being in a sort of small car (small for those days) and not having the whiplash-preventing headrest of our modern day cars, while Sy, making a left turn in his big ol' Cadillac, is killed. He musta been hit by a gravel truck or something.
Another coincidence (these are intentional, story-line coincidences) is Danny's resemblance to Abraham's son Isaac as portrayed in the painting on Marshak's wall. You can see Danny reacting unfavorably to the painting, which is of Abraham being stopped at the last moment from following God's command to sacrifice Isaac. The painting shows a person stopping Abe from cutting Isaac's throat. I don't know the story that well, but I though it was more like the voice of God at the last moment saying, "This was only a test!" Anyway, on the subject of Abraham, earlier in the movie we heard from Rabbi Nachtner, when he gave Sy's eulogy, that the afterlife is not a geographical place "like Canada," and not a place where we'll be rewarded for our good deeds (not a "VIP lounge" where milk and cookies are served eternally), but is rather "in the bosom of Abraham." Danny can't be too impressed with the desirability of having his soul rocked in the bosom of Abraham after looking at the painting.
And of course, in Larry's dream of Arthur attempting to escape his legal troubles, the place of sanctuary is intended to be Canada. The early parts of that scene--the sign that tells us Canada is the destination and the fact that a boat is the mode of escape--made me think of Tim O'Brien's story "On the Rainy River".
And of course, in Larry's dream of Arthur attempting to escape his legal troubles, the place of sanctuary is intended to be Canada. The early parts of that scene--the sign that tells us Canada is the destination and the fact that a boat is the mode of escape--made me think of Tim O'Brien's story "On the Rainy River".
