"FUP Duck!" (c) Brett Paufler # # # 20+/20 "Very Original First Essay" # # # "FUP Duck!" The Duck, the Book, this Essay. Or should I say, FUP-Duck book essay. Earn those big points early is my motto. The book wasn't bad really, until the end. Here I am cruising along in this more or less coherent story. Digging this wild old guy (chaos), juxtaposed against a fence builder grandson (order) with a fat eccentric duck thrown in for color (mysticism). And then out of left field the FUPing Duck turns into this Messia Angel thing. I don't know. My mind sort of goes blank, and I think :OK here's another author who's stuck for an ending." But then, that's the wrong attitude. So I think, "Why did the dear, sweet, kind teacher assign the book?" Outside of the fact that it's a quick read, and the students can then write essays about FUPing this and FUPing that. I mean it's got about as much to do with the Anthropology as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" has with Biology. And, as I'm putting together the argument that Jonathan being a bird and all belongs in Biology, I figure the same sort of "reasoning" could be applied to FUP. Soooo, Anthropology has to do with people and culture, and stuff. And sure enough, as I remember the book had people and culture, and stuff in it. And while I was reading the book I had the Eerie feeling that I had read it before. Eventually I recalled reading a few lines from FUP this summer in the library, the part about fence building no less. Then in the library today, as I start research for the group project, I run across a book called "Bird Taxidermy." Coincidence? I think not. Clear indication I'm being drawn into FUP's evil web. # # # Upon the reread, I note that the teacher included a few editing marks, which I probably ignored at the time, as I don't remember them at all. Further, it simply is not as good as I remember. I may have been better off if I never found a copy and lived with a memory that outshone reality, instead.