THREE PARABLES AND A DISSERTATION
as to stop now would have been to leave a gratuitous contrast between
the clean and the overgrown parts. The clerk took off the rest of his
clothes and began to shave his belly.
It
occurred to him, however, that
if
he proceeded on the prin–
ciple of shaving himself wherever hair grew, he would have a con–
siderable job on his hands, as he was quite a hairy person; besides,
his time was running short and he would have to hurry to keep
the appointment. He therefore decided to draw an arbitrary line,
beyond which he would not go. This he drew, as he thought proper,
just at the groin. But when he came to the groin, he discovered that
it was impossible to determine the exact location of the arbitrary
line, for his pubic hair did not begin to grow all at once, at one
place, but spread over quite an area of vagueness. So he was obliged
to shave his groin, which drained his .nerve, for he feared giving
himself an injury. In this manner, working his razor always faster
and faster, he shaved his entire body, suffering more and more cuts
as the edge grew dull. He shaved his thighs, calves, shins, ankles
and feet, then his arms and armpits, his forearms and his hands;
and when this was done, he felt compelled to shave his eyebrows
and the hair that grew on his head. Not until he was completely
free of hair did he put away his razor, which was nicked and covered
with blood. It was now too late to keep the appointment; and for
that matter, until his cuts healed and enough hair grew back to allow
him to look presentable, he would not even be able to go to his job,
let alone advancing himself. He would not even dare go out in the
street. He saw that he would surely starve to death before his hair
grew back. Therefore he took up the razor and used it, for the last
time, to cut his throat.
3. A CYCLIST IN THE HILLS
Near the top of a steep hill, which was but one of the lower
foothills to a range of mountains, there was a summer camp for
poets, short story writers, and novelists. One day a young man rode
up the hill on a bicycle and stopped at the camp to rest. When asked
what he did, he said he rode. Wrote what? asked the writers. No,
not wrote,
rode-his
bicycle, replied the young man. Was that all
he did? Yes, that was all. Then why had he come to the camp?
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