I have no recollection of any of this

I was wandering around my blog, and I came upon this-  Did I write that?  Did I copy it? Did someone give it to me?  I have no recall of where it came from or why it caused such a stir.  

Theory- it is a satiric commentary of literary analysis.

Sometimes I feel like I have forgotten whole lives- even when I did write them down. 

The Chicken and the Void

The chicken stared into the void.
The void stared back.

The void said, “Chicken,
what do you see?”

The chicken said-
“nothing.”
“you’re a void.”

The void said, “Chicken,
you have much to learn.”

The chicken said,
“no, I don’t.”
“I’m a chicken.”

The chicken threw a single feather into the void.

Chicken = 1.
Void = 0.


What do the “chicken” and the “void” symbolize?
What do you think the author meant by the chicken’s gesture of throwing in the “single feather?”
What does “Chicken = 1” and “Void = 0” mean?
Why does the chicken tell the void he doesn’t have much to learn?
Why would the void ask the chicken what he saw in a void?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The chicken is you. The void is nothingness. It could be a mirror. It could be what you see when you sit on a point overlooking a city and see all the blackness with a few points of light. It could be the vastness of space when you look at it. The void is whatever you are looking at when you are introspective. The void could cause you to be introspective. The void conversing with the chicken is the representation of your conscience talking to you when you are being introspective. You ask yourself, "What do you see?" Your conscience is probing you. You respond to your conscience, "Nothing." The second half of that response is what sets the stage. "You are a void." This shows the true reason for the introspection and the probing conscience. "You are a Void." "You are nothing." This is the cry of utter helplessness. Feeling completely worthless. You are looking back over your life and you come to the conclusion that you are nothing and worthless. Your conscience tells you that you have much to learn. Your conscience knows that life has meaning and is not futile. Your response is one of resignation and hopelessness. "No, I know I am truly worthless." Not only are you resigned to that, you are sure of it and you do not think you can be swayed. The throwing of the feather just emphasized the point. You through away part of yourself to emphasize that point. You are trying to make a point to your conscience. "Conscience, I am worthless. And to prove it I will throw away part of who I am" It could be anything that you throw away... your morals, your money, your mind, your beliefs, your heart, your body, anything that is part of you. You throw it away making the point with your conscience, thus tallying the points up in your mind. You were right once and your conscience wasn't. Who will be right the next time? You know you will have to accept what your conscience is telling you unless you can always stay one point ahead. What will be next? How many points will you have to make to win? Will you destroy yourself to win? Will you not be persuaded by your conscience before you destroy yourself? Does your self loathing run that deep? Does your feeling of worthlessness run just as deep? Will you be receptive of the points your conscience makes? Will you continue to inspect yourself or will you reject personal inspection? Are you sabotaging the battle so you never have a chance for hope? Are you fixing the fight so you always win and are always right? Alow yourself a glimmer of Hope. It won't kill you and might actually do you some good. Do not give up on yourself. People believe in you. People care for you. People love you. You are special and NOT worthless. You have value and worth. Be Courageous and Be Strong. Enjoy Life!

5:04 AM 

Anonymous said...

Diddo! deepthought's analysis is a much better, "deeper" than my thought.

I think when the chicken says, "No i dont, I am a chicken", the chicken has already come to grips with his reality. He understands that he is a chicken, and in being a chicken he doesn't have much more to learn. Now, if he were a smarter animal, that might be different. Right?

Do chickens have a conscience? Am I a chicken? A few other thoughts that i had.

And what do the numbers mean? I am not a math person, so I haven't the foggiest idea.

9:12 AM 

Anonymous said...

I thought it was about seeing a hopeless future as you contemplate your next job / move in life. I think chickens stare into voids all the time, and they don't know what the heck they are seeing... they just get bored and go back to pecking for bugs if they don't see any wing-shaped shadows swooping overhead (where are the hawk-shaped shadows?) How can a void talk - that must have all been in the chicken's head.

My niece's favorite joke used to be Why did the chicken cross the road? To get the popcorn!!
She would tell it and just laugh and laugh and laugh. In that case, I'd have to say I identify with the chicken much more than with the road. In the case of the chicken and the void, it's hard to identify with either... the void scares me too much to think about it. As for the "score" I think the one was just chicken scratch.

9:34 AM 

Anonymous said...

For me, the numbers at the end add a whole new perspective to the picture. I see it as a score; That the chicken scored a point and skunked the void. Therefore, the void is nothingness indeed, but a specific kind of nothingness.It is not something positive, like wide open possibilities, that can be filled with anything. No, it is an emptiness without possibilities- something that is to be defeated. It could be despair, helplessness, all things of no promise such as the things described in Ecclesiastes, or even (Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" immitation) Satan.

I see the chicken as scoring a point on the void by not falling into the trap of believing he/she needed the empty promise that the void was trying to convince him he/she needed.

And I picture the chicken as having defeated the void by throwing a feather in, because a void with something in it is no longer a void. So, I see the story ending with the chicken destroying the void, and imagine the void vanishing as the chicken threw the feather in.

Therefore the score: Chicken 1, Void 0.

12:51 PM 

Shannon
I think the chicken symbolizes modern man in his attempt to fill his empty "void" life;
and the feather is the chicken's knowledge that he really doesn't know anything- knowing is really realizing you don't know.

I think if every chicken suddenly disappeared from earth, that would be confusing, but that's beside the point.

Sergio
I think the void symbolizes modern man and the chicken symbolizes all those that came before him and so we each have our chickens to face; many of those chickens are direct relatives
some are related by marriage. Others are food which makes things confusing,
but no more confusing than a egotistical void.

An egotistical void reads the New Yorker outdoors at coffee shops.
I guess such a void would be full of itself.

Shannon
If a void was full of it's self, would it still be void?
Sergio
It would be a void within a void.
Shannon
No, we are the chickens.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a chicken or a void. (well i might be a void, since that is a synonym of my name, but that is besides the point.)

but, if i had to choose, i would choose that we are the chicken.....the other interpretation doesn't even make sense.

But, chicken is food....and i hate to think of myself as food.

9:19 AM 

NV: I actually thought the feather was a challenge to the void; something to the effect of: if I throw this feather at you, you won't be void anymore and, aren't chickens smarter than voids b/c voids are nothing.

PK: I don't think chickens are smarter than voids, but I do think if the chicken indeed threw the feather; it was to show the void that it could be destroyed, as you mentioned. It wasn’t a void anymore... chickens are the voids of the animal world, so I think it's a pretty close race. If you threw a feather at a chicken, it would run.

Anonymous said...

NV and PK do have a point. But I am still sticking to my point that I am not a chicken! I don't run around in circles after i get my head chopped off.....wait a minute, that has never happened to me. Ok. I won't run around in circles if I get my head chopped off. :D

10:36 AM 

Anonymous said...

but you WILL flop around on the chopping block because of nerves... and I KNOW you... you've got a lot of nerve ;)

parenting pro-tip

 Give your kids notepads and sticky notes because they might give them back to you. 

She read it to me.  "It says, I heart, heart, heart, heart Mama." (Tamzin)

self awareness of awkward

 I realized last week that I am that *awkward* coworker who they dread to see coming.

Meh- says my Gen X self.  These millennials and Zs don't know me.

I went in to say hi to a coworker.  I only intended to stay for a minute, but I realize (now) that she is way too kind and accommodating to shoo people out of her room- and that encouraged me to 'visit.'  So, there we were shooting the shit (as my dear departed mother would say) when this other teacher came running in shoving her phone into co-worker 1's face and saying, "Look at this!"  

This second teacher is even more awkward than I am, and I watched as coworker #1 patiently went through the motions of turning her attention to where it was being demanded, and acting like she had any amount of interest in the subject on the phone being shoved into her face.

I watched the interaction for a few minutes, then I got it.  This poor woman is just sitting in her room trying to finish her work, and people are just popping in to talk nonsense and waste her time. After that, I excused myself and left co-worker 1 to the flapdoodle of coworker 2 and her phone.

Today I went to a (different) coworker's room to pick up some books.  She was chatting with someone from off campus and when she saw me she said, "Oh, hi Shannon" kinda loud like it was a signal to the person with her back to me to change the subject.  

AWKWARD

Why I'm awkward at work (in no special order)

1. I'm willing to waste time

2. I'm okay with not being the best teacher ever

3. I am the squeaky wheel

4. I'm old (aka I don't care)

5. I don't know much about public schools stuff (and I don't want to know much- I actively avoid knowing more stuff)

6. I've always been a bit awkward

7. I don't love this job, I'm in for the money- and the kids- always the kids right?

why I never buy red shoes

 I am drawn to red shoes and boots.  I don't know why, but I always gravitate to them when I'm considering new footwear.  I have on a very few occasions bought red shoes, but then I felt self-conscious every time I wore them.  

My problem is I have big feet. Big, long fat feet.  And I hate tight shoes, so I will look for wide width shoes or buy them a size too big.  I want my toes to have room to wiggle- and I decided earlier than most women that comfort is way more important to me than style.

Whenever I wear red shoes I feel like other people are looking at my shoes like, "Look at those giant clown shoes!"  Red is just begging for attention. The last thing I need is for people to take more notice of my feet.

So- no red shoes.  FYI about me.

PS maybe it's a wonder woman thing.

the cold

Sometimes I wonder if I would like to live in a place that has more dramatic seasons.  But then when it's been cold here for like 8 mornings in a row, (It gets up to the 50s in the daytime.) I'm all like, "It's been COLD for so long! I can't take it anymore! Will it ever be warm again?"

#Forgot what it's like to be a Yankee