Crossing a Creek

Posted on June 30, 2003 in The Orange Writing

Downhill from Holy Jim Falls was easy except for the first fifty yards from the falls which are rocky and overgrown with roots, which necessitates getting down on all fours and moving along like a beetle over a burlap bag. We made several crossings of the creek — I think seven — before we came to the last stretch of dirt road that led to the parking lot. Of the fords, this last one was the narrowest: even the shortest people in the group could step across it.

As I approached I called back “OK, here comes the toughest crossing!”

Garnette, tired and a little cold because the sun had passed over the mountain tops next to us, said “You can’t step across that? Isn’t this the last one?”

Last week’s discussion about the open mic poetry reading resembles this exchange. Here I said something in clear sarcasm. The context made the statement clear. The words were chosen carefully. Still, because she was tired Garnette didn’t get it for about a minute.

A couple of nights previous, I was in a car with Garnette and a few others. We crossed Moulton Parkway. I said “We can’t drive on this. It’s Moulton.” Garnette groaned (which is the proper response for a truly wretched pun like this — people who laugh at puns just don’t get them) and another passenger — also very intelligent — didn’t catch on right away. These things happen.

Explaining any joke ruins it as comedians know. I think the same can hold true of writing, though when matters are more serious, you need to get clarity, definitions. Writers need to write clearly, but readers also make mistakes. Consider those freshmen who read Swift’s A Modest Proposal for the first time and then come to class ready to denounce him as a cannibal. It’s not Swift’s fault that they didn’t get the joke. He writes clearly enough: the outrageousness of his proposal blows in the wind, obstructing any view which might lead a reader to take it seriously. And yet, some run into that flag and get so close to the weave that they can’t see the point.

To writers: clearly state what you want to say. To readers: read twice, three times. Neither writer nor reader should rush their exercise.