Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Names of Elliot
I am reading a poem that says that the naming of cats is a difficult matter, because Elliot thinks that it isn’t just one of the holiday games that you are used to get when he tells you that a cat must have three different names, because there’s the name that the family use daily and there are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter, while Elliot believes that Plato, Admetus, Electra, and Demeter are sensible everyday names, but he tells us that a cat needs a name that is particular, that’s peculiar and more dignified, or else he thinks that you cannot keep his tail perpendicular, or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride, he also believes that there is a name that no human research can discover, but the cat himself knows, and will never confess, because he wants me to notice a cat in profound meditation, and think that his mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation, of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name, the ineffable effable effanineffable deep and inscrutable singular name.