In this image · No.25
Distraction and Unfinished Actions
No.24 has Jack rejecting Wendy’s invitation for a walk because he has to get work done. Yet No.25 opens with a blank page in a typewriter, a cigarette burning in an ashtray, magazines and newspapers strewn about, old food trays, and Jack throwing a tennis ball against a Native American sand painting. This shows both his writer’s block and the distractions he chooses when he cannot create or do what he wants.
Jack describes himself in No.5: “I’m a writer, teaching’s been more or less a way of making ends meet.” The work sequence continues through No.31, No.33, where he stares off, No.36, No.41, No.45, where he is asleep at the desk, No.59, and No.63.
In No.41, when Danny asks why he does not go to sleep, Jack replies, “I can’t. I have too much to do.”