Each of Traubel’s volumes may stand alone, the present no less than the three that preceded it. You may open it anywhere and begin reading, for this work needs no such logical or chronological sequence as is customary in a work of formal interpretation or biographical narrative. Its logic is the delightful and limber illogic of conversation, in which one thing by chance recalls another in the daily meeting of two friends with a storehouse of memories. — Sculley Bradley, introduction to Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Volume 4; January 21-April 7, 1889 (Southern Illinois University Press, 1959)

The following are some texts and emails from me and my friend’s replies. The exchange occurred in March 2024.

I think they throw light on issues related to memory and what one values in people.

There is a certain discursiveness in the exchange, which is to be expected and in fact welcomed in such exchanges (not unlike those which Walt Whitman had with his Boswell, Horace Traubel).

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   October 2024

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ME

My post about my high school math teacher went viral.

Like any individual, there were other interesting things about him as a person: little things that are fun to remember.

A person is not just a spreadsheet.

You can quote me on that … do you think it will rank with nice guys finish last?

 

ME

Eccentric people and their eccentricities, the little things we observe about ordinary people, are not beneath our notice

My high school math teacher, Mr. Badoain, besides being a great teacher, was quite a character.

George Eliot’s characters are often ordinary, unremarkable, and often eccentric people.

She shows implicitly that they are not beneath interest or unworthy of consideration; or their preoccupations and habits.

I see this intuitively, and critics have said as much.

 

ME

so ….

when my mother used to throw salt over her shoulder

and Mr. Badoian had a poster on the classroom wall of his idol, Sophia Loren

Such peculiarities, eccentricities would not be neglected by a Nabokov or Bernard Malamud.

I am thinking of novels by Nabokov and Malamdud that I read: Nabokov’s “Pnin” about an eccentric Russian professor teaching at a college (Wellesley?) like Nabokov did … Malamud’s “A New Life,” based on his experience as an adjunct professor teaching writing.

 

MY FRIEND

Your interest in others is very clear.

Even though many of the people I’ve met, at work or elsewhere, don’t make a strong connection and probably know nothing about me other than my resume stuff, my experience is different from yours, and that’s why I found your comment odd (“people don’t care about you beyond the spreadsheet items” – this is sort of what you said).

 

ME

Life throws you into all kinds of relationships in terms of closeness. There are a lot of people whom I have become associated with and got to know well — saw on a regular basis, such as relatives and in-laws or coworkers, who obviously knew the fundamental facts about me, since they were well acquainted with me on that level, but who were not interested in or curious about me or my interests; and might not be able to say (this was often the case) where I went to college or what I studied; and how I wound up coming to NYC (or from where), or what my interests were … they would, of course, have formed some overall impression of me.

And after knowing them for a long time — or in the case of say coworkers — a pretty long time, they could tell you little about me.

Almost everyone is of interest to me, period, with a few exceptions.

 

MY FRIEND

I’ve just run through many good friends in my mind and can’t think of one who doesn’t appreciate the little things or who judges people by their resumes.

ME

Of course, a person’s history and accomplishments are important.

But a lot of people think the little things are of no importance.

George Eliot’s characters are “insignificant’ often petty people .. she shows that their little concerns and lives are not insignificant.

I can think of so many people I met, often in the workplace … friends of mine and my wife … friends of friends, etc., etc. … and so often what I remember best and what brings them to life is/was their idiosyncrasies, neuroses (in many cases), likes and dislikes, opinions about this and that.

Of course, I also remember a lot of an informational nature: their life history … I make a point about asking about this … I almost never forget.

Things from the past that might be regarded as trivial are fixed in my mind. I can go way back in my memory and its vivid and distinct in my mind .. the people, their particulars, what they said.

You can see such a memory working in Tolstoy’s “Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth.”

 

MY FRIEND

Understand re the spreadsheets now — I don’t think of resumes being saved on spreadsheets — they’re mostly for data — so that’s why I was confused. You meant people aren’t their bios or resumes, right?

But as I think about it, they’re really a combination. The things about your mother’s throwing salt over her shoulder or your math teacher’s peculiarities are interesting and helped to make them what they were, but there’s a lot in the resumes that’s important too. Together, the resume and the traits/quirks/whatever make people interesting.