Indeterminacy 129

Alan Watts gave a party that started in the afternoon, New Year’s
Eve, and lasted through the night and the following day. Except
for about four hours which we spent napping we were never without
food or drink. Alan Watts lived near Millbrook. His cooking was
not only excellent but elaborate. There was, for instance, I
forget just when, a meat pie in the shape of a large loaf of
bread. Truffles ran through the meat, which had been wrapped
first in crepes and then in the crust, in which had been
inscribed in Sanskrit “Om.” Joseph Campbell, Jean Erdman, Mrs.
Coomaraswamy, and I were the guests. Jean Erdman spent most of
the time knitting. Alan Watts, Mrs. Coomaraswamy, and Joseph
Campbell conversed brilliantly about the Orient, its
mythologies, its arts, and its philosophies. Joseph
Campbell was concerned at that time about the illustration of
his Zimmer book, Philosophies of India. He was anxious to
find a picture which would include certain and several symbols,
and though he had searched his own library and several
public ones, he was still looking for the right picture.
I said, “Why don’t you use the one in Jean Erdman’s
knitting book?” Joseph Campbell laughed because he knew I
hadn’t even seen the picture. Mrs. Coomaraswamy said,
“Let me look at it.” Jean Erdman stopped knitting and gave
her the book. Mrs. Coomaraswamy began interpreting the
picture, which was of a girl in a sweater standing in a
landscape. Everything, it turned out, referred
precisely to the subjects with which Joseph Campbell was
concerned, including the number in the upper right-hand corner.

- John Cage