LET IT OUT AND LET IT IN

So what did Jimmy see in Jude?

Some of it had to be the general obliqueness. He was a big R.E.M. fan, and they were still relatively murky back in 1987 (and the better for it, I might add).

And if you had never read Jude the Obscure, I suppose this was even more, um, obscure…

I liked this little epigram:

“A fool and his philosophy
Will soon part
Faithfully.”

The “break out of the apron” image was a pretty layered expression of desire for freedom from conformity, and it was a nice move to repurpose the portent of the Hardy-via-Corinthians “The letter killeth” as a message of slightly blinkered optimism.

It is more than a little odd sitting here behind my large ell-shaped wood-grain desk nearly 20 years later, on a lunch break from writing staff performance evaluations, to consider all this...