{"id":"01KG6FHSKA33S45QA6VWE456MS","cid":"bafkreifxqluzah4ybdunw4humx5y6mefktrwmc4mgjy4czfwenhk5tyzpu","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreieuu7ouslmnx63h764symfpkabbcebiiozbuezpwnfs2qfb66ntsy","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"Rye_page_0099.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769744163179-5tzri2m781w","label":"Rye_page_0099.jpg","page_number":99,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":810479,"text":"\"You don't care to have somebody stick to the point when he tells you\nsomething?\"\n\"Oh, sure! I like somebody to stick to the point and all. But I don't like them to\nstick too much to the point. I don't know. I guess I don't like it when somebody sticks to\nthe point all the time. The boys that got the best marks in Oral Expression were the ones\nthat stuck to the point all the time--I admit it. But there was this one boy, Richard\nKinsella. He didn't stick to the point too much, and they were always yelling 'Digression!'\nat him. It was terrible, because in the first place, he was a very nervous guy--I mean he\nwas a very nervous guy--and his lips were always shaking whenever it was his time to\nmake a speech, and you could hardly hear him if you were sitting way in the back of the\nroom. When his lips sort of quit shaking a little bit, though, I liked his speeches better\nthan anybody else's. He practically flunked the course, though, too. He got a D plus\nbecause they kept yelling 'Digression!' at him all the time. For instance, he made this\nspeech about this farm his father bought in Vermont. They kept yelling 'Digression!' at\nhim the whole time he was making it, and this teacher, Mr. Vinson, gave him an F on it\nbecause he hadn't told what kind of animals and vegetables and stuff grew on the farm\nand all. What he did was, Richard Kinsella, he'd start telling you all about that stuff--then\nall of a sudden he'd start telling you about this letter his mother got from his uncle, and\nhow his uncle got polio and all when he was forty-two years old, and how he wouldn't let\nanybody come to see him in the hospital because he didn't want anybody to see him with\na brace on. It didn't have much to do with the farm--I admit it--but it was nice. It's nice\nwhen somebody tells you about their uncle. Especially when they start out telling you\nabout their father's farm and then all of a sudden get more interested in their uncle. I\nmean it's dirty to keep yelling 'Digression!' at him when he's all nice and excited. I don't\nknow. It's hard to explain.\" I didn't feel too much like trying, either. For one thing, I had\nthis terrific headache all of a sudden. I wished to God old Mrs. Antolini would come in\nwith the coffee. That's something that annoys hell out of me--I mean if somebody says\nthe coffee's all ready and it isn't.\n\"Holden. . . One short, faintly stuffy, pedagogical question. Don't you think there's\na time and place for everything? Don't you think if someone starts out to tell you about\nhis father's farm, he should stick to his guns, then get around to telling you about his\nuncle's brace? Or, if his uncle's brace is such a provocative subject, shouldn't he have\nselected it in the first place as his subject--not the farm?\"\nI didn't feel much like thinking and answering and all. I had a headache and I felt\nlousy. I even had sort of a stomach-ache, if you want to know the truth.\n\"Yes--I don't know. I guess he should. I mean I guess he should've picked his\nuncle as a subject, instead of the farm, if that interested him most. But what I mean is,\nlots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something\nthat doesn't interest you most. I mean you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're\nsupposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all\nexcited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.\nYou just didn't know this teacher, Mr. Vinson. He could drive you crazy sometimes, him\nand the goddam class. I mean he'd keep telling you to unify and simplify all the time.\nSome things you just can't do that to. I mean you can't hardly ever simplify and unify\nsomething just because somebody wants you to. You didn't know this guy, Mr. Vinson. I\nmean he was very intelligent and all, but you could tell he didn't have too much brains.\"","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:36:03.179Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1855},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFHMJM2J9JHQAQM1Q9SKBJWF","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FHT9P3Q49VC17GVBRDXGW","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6FHSKJQT59GQFSQ3KGN45S","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KG6FMYS83Z11PZX344523WCB","peer_label":"Rye_page_0099_medium.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6FN29BSBB40FP82KR4X3B4","peer_label":"Rye_page_0099_thumb.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","predicate":"has_assembly"}],"ver":6,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:36:04.458Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:40:41.690Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFC4A8W8939TXGEXCK439ZK"}}