In, Trout Fishing in America Brautigan used words “Trout Fishing in America” to mean many things. Sometimes it was the literal act of trout fishing in America. But sometimes it was a person, like in “The Autopsy of Trout Fishing in America” and in the stories about Trout Fishing in America Shorty. In another case Trout Fishing in America was a hotel on Columbus and Broadway in San Francisco. It was also more inanimate things like a disguise.
A theme that I noticed that tied all these things together was that trout fishing in America always seemed to pertain to some kind of death, loss, or absence (negativity). One story that I thought was interesting was “Trout Fishing in America Terrorists.” In this story the sixth graders write “trout fishing in America” on the backs of all the first graders. It said that it took a little while to get it off the backs of the first-graders, since it was written on their clothes. However, “…after a few more days trout fishing in America disappeared altogether…”(40). This was symbolic to it’s fading to death.
Another example of this is in the two stories about Trout Fishing in America Shorty. He had no legs because a trout chopped them off, and he was crippled and helpless. He disappears and then reappears later in the book.
Yet another example is in “Trout Fishing on the Street of Eternity”(80). In this story he finds a diary of a man who has been trout fishing his whole life and never caught a trout. He tallied up his Total Trout Lost, which equaled 239. This theme of trout fishing and loss is threaded throughout the whole book.
3 comments:
I think you propose an interesting point in Brautigan's "Trout Fishing..." when you mention the theme of loss or absence throughout the novel. I had never thought about these elements until you mentioned them, and now it seems very evident that Brautigan was trying to compensate for a lack of something in America, whether it be love, trout fishing, or books. Death is portrayed throughout the book by various means of the trout dying, by the hot springs, wine, or being caught. I like how you bring up specific incidents of "loss" in the book, which becomes very clear in your example of the total trout lost list.
Zofia...right on about the death-haunted, fading movements in the stories and poems in RB's works. The trout that dies from port wine, and the hunchback trout who gets eaten, which we worked with in class, are two more examples. If we could push this pattern, plus what we know about the different meanings of TFA, a bit more, what could we say is the point of highlighting death in the work? What's being lost besides trout? What else is disappearing along with the trout, and how do we know? Definitely important questions when trying to figure out what RB is up to.
Zofia I as well was caught by the reoccurring theme of death and "taintedness" (fish in particular) in many of his works. Mr. Brautigan, in my opinion, sees this dark-whacky foulness in our world because the balance that once existed with nature is gone."Worsewick" is the passage that really drilled into my head this constant ugliness and loss that just floats by. I liked you interpretation of “Trout Fishing in America Terrorists.” I did not think about as trout fishing in America dying until now.
Post a Comment