"1=1" by Anne Carson

This story can be found in the January 11, 2016 issue of The New Yorker.

This review can also be read at The Mookse and the Gripes.

First Line: "She visits others."

Last Line: "The fox does not fail."

I do not understand everything about this story, but I know there is so much in there. I wish I had more learning, more background, more intellect to make and see the connections that are here in this piece.  So I'd like to encourage discussion about this story.  I am ready to learn. 

What did you notice?  What struck you about the beginning and its connection to the ending?  Is there a symbolism that ran through here that was heavy for you?  Did this prose piece feel poetic in tone and theme?  What is this tale really about?  

Water predominates this piece - the lake, the sea.  It held and cradled characters - the main character, the dog, refugees... 

The first line is haunting: "She visits others."  Yet, then the protagonist calls herself selfish.  How?  Why?  She notices people, situations, individuals...  But she says there's "no momentum in sharing"...?

"There is pressure to use this water correctly... Every water has its own rules and offering... Perhaps involved is that commonplace struggle to know beauty... Every water has a right place to be, but that place is motion.  You have to keep finding it, keep having it find you.  Your movement sinks into and out of it with each stroke.  You can fail it with each stroke.  What does that mean, fail it."  What does "fail it" mean?

And how does this connect to the end?  "The fox does not fail."  And Comrade Chandler's connection to the fox?

So much to talk about here.  Let's see what we discover from each other.

Photo Credit: http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1380283628p5/34336.jpg

Mormon Moment: "And he said unto me: What desirest thou?  And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof... [for] I do not know the meaning of all things."  1 Nephi 11:10,11,17