Topical Guide 100
Mark Dorset
Life: Yearning for Another, Different, Better
Fame: Yearning for Lasting
While the fox was rowing, he began to feel sorry for himself.
First he compared the misery of his existence with the joy that he imagined other animals felt. …
This clam—like most other clams at that time—hated the life of a clam, which seemed to him a cruel joke. …
Whenever the fox had rowed across the bay, the clam would watch with envy and curse his lot. “If only I had been a fox,” the clam would sigh.Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
Next the fox began to think about his past life, to weigh what he had done against what he had once hoped to do. It seemed to the fox that he had done nothing commendable, nothing memorable. He decided that if, one day, he did not return home, he’d be forgotten the day after.
Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
In such wise they grieved, the folk of the Geats,
for the fall of their lord, e’n they his hearth-fellows;
Quoth they that he was a world-king forsooth,
The mildest of men, unto men kindest,
To his folk the most gentlest, most yearning of fame.
So lamented mourning the men of the Geats,
Fond-loving vassals, the fall of their lord,
Said he was kindest of kings under heaven,
Gentlest of men, most winning of manner,
Friendliest to folk-troops and fondest of honor.Beowulf, conclusion, translated by John Lesslie Hall
So the Geat people, his hearth companions,
Sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low.
They said that of all the kings upon the earth
He was the man most gracious and fair-minded,
Kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.
After 21 years or more of writing novels steadily with inch-like progress I am about where most of my contemporaries are who wrote one play, one book, of moderate success, and basked in increasing glory, prestige and (in some cases) affluence, ever since. They took care to nurse what fame came on their one outburst—they cultivated the rich, the publicity spotlight, and discussed their literary and artistic perceptions so avidly that no one ever forgot they were permanent stars. This perpetual going over the finished deed prevents them ever building new deeds, but this is no handicap to their mounting success.
Al stopped Porky for a moment and made him take a good look at one of the clamboats nearby, on which Serge de Nimes stood in the rain and wind, clawing at the bay bottom with his tongs. “Now there’s something that should cheer you up, Porky,” she said. “You ought to be glad that you’re not one of those guys, out here all day in all kinds of weather.”
Porky didn’t say anything, but I could see that he was thinking, deciding whether the fact that he wasn’t Serge or any of the other clammies ought to cheer him up. When the three of us were bent over in the Kitten’s Paw, bailing like mad, he spoke. “You know, I’m not so sure that I wouldn’t be happier as a clammy,” he said. “It’s not an easy life, I grant you, but it has more of an aura of romance about it than being a giant in the fast-food industry has, you know what I mean? I mean, sure they’re out here in some rotten weather, but after their day’s work is done they gather in a bar along the docks somewhere and tell stories about their close calls on the unforgiving bay, embellish the tales of the legendary clammies, and that kind of thing. It’s like living in a beer commercial. It seems exciting to me. … And I guess they all must have the feeling that someday, after they’re gone, other clammies, their sons and the sons of their friends, and their sons’ sons and their friends’ sons’ sons, will tell stories about them, that they won’t be forgotten, that they might become legends themselves, you know?”
He stopped bailing for a minute and rubbed his hands together.
“I can just see my kid telling stories about me when I’m gone,” he said.Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”
[more to come on Friday, October 1, 2021]
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