Digression...

"Digression is the soul of wit."

My father often asks for the “reader's digest version” of my stories. My long-winded nature and tendency to digress and pursue tangents is well-known in my family. My father's request for a "reader's digest version" is an (often futile) attempt to keep me on track.

But, I was reading Bradbury’s afterward to Fahrenheit 451 and he beautifully defended digressions. Claiming that digressions are not only the soul of wit, but they are the sunshine, the life and the soul of reading. I couldn't agree more.

I remember reading Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye and being entirely bored by the “crumbly” Holden Caulfield as he wandered the streets on New York complaining about every person he met. But, I reached Chapter 22 and my heart stopped, my lungs were void of air and I cried. It was as though I was meeting Holden Caulfield for the first time and the pain of the character was overwhelming. I realized the digressions of the book, the conversation with the nuns, the phone calls to old girlfriends, the writing in the bathroom stalls, were more than just “excessive” descriptions of a young boy’s adventure. They were manifestations of emptiness, confusion, and a longing to return to unaltered happiness and innocence. And most importantly, in Holden's mind, they were what waited for any child who Holden couldn't save from the cliff's edge.

The digressions of the book were the soul and sunshine of the novel.

Wow. I really do love that book.