Boat People

Pliny the Elder is admiring my little paper boats. These are admirable, he says.

Thanks, I say, I learned how to make them last Saturday when I went to an art exhibition at the Samstag Museum.

Under what circumstances did you learn to make them? asks he.

There was a woman sitting at a large wooden table making paper boats from pages she'd torn from a set of leather bound encyclopedias piled up in front of her. She asked me if I'd like to make one, and when I said yes she showed me how.

This seems to me an unjustifiable desecration of a valuable book, says Pliny, with a frown.

But, says I, it can be justified. The woman, who was not the artist, by the way, but was acting according to the artist's instructions, told me that the artist was very concerned with the issue of boat people, and the boats were being made to represent them in some way.

Why use the encyclopedia? asks Pliny, unconvinced.

Because, I say, it represents the collected wisdom of the Western World, which for all its wonderfulness has not taught us compassion, and because its jolly nice quality paper and quite fun to fold. Also if you think about it encyclopedias are pretty well defunct these days.

Humph! humphs Pliny. I still think she could have used some other kind of paper. I notice you yourself have made your paper boats out of some old invoices and a shopping docket.

Well, I don't have an encyclopedia, I say. And I'm blowed if I was going to tear up my beloved dictionary.