Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy (iii) and Sigh, Gone (i)

from cartoonist Jonathan Hill and teacher Phuc Tran

Fup duck. It’s a euphemism. Situation normal, all fup duck.

Fup duck beyond all recognition. That first word is also how I pronounce the name Phúc.

The u starts off to become an ooo rising like a question? The c cuts the vowel off short at oo as in food. Lips close as they do when you begin to say p.

Jonathan Hill writes that his uncle Phuc Tran explained that his c sounds like a p. Who are you going to listen to? Me, of course, the scientific linguist.

What do I say? You should listen to Phuc. He listened to his father, who had named him Phúc only after one year’s post-natal consideration and deliberation with the godfather.

Suddenly over here, the father gave the matter a moment’s thought and advised the boy to tell the English-only speakers to say fook. Sent his son off to school in a new land as Phuc rhymes with duck not fup.

Hats off. He gave his son a decoration for bravery that cannot be faked.

Like a tattoo, come to think of it. Skin healed over the pricks of outrageous fortune. He jests at scars who never felt a wound.

We honor bravery because it is catching. Phuc Tran’s nephew Jonathan Hill caught courage from his uncle.

Whoops here comes the scientist again to say that field studies show Vietnamese men deliberately bringing out moral quality in a boy by naming him for it. Nghĩa, for instance, meaning (meaning meaning) itself.

Văn, for instance, cultivation by study of the humanities for advancement as an advocate for the family and clan and community and nation. Việt itself, as for instance the Viet Thanh Nguyen blurbing on the front cover.

He is Việt, the Vietnamese, thanh, resounding. Man has won a MacArthur and a Pulitzer. He is proud of Phuc rhymes with bucks and luck for just showing up at school under his own written name. Me too.

Jonathan Hill has dedicated his work of nghĩa, meaning, of văn, literature, Việt and otherwise, to his brave, decorated uncle Phuc rhymes with pluck Tran. Who has Phuc dedicated his own book to? His wife Sue.

That is, a girl named Sue. I am wondering if he meant to crack me up as well as to honor her. Could be. In his author photo Phuc is a man in black, like Johnny Cash, both of them punks in the sense of attitude.

Oh, look up to the first photograph. Phuc rhymes with stuck sticks the anarchist tag in his family name. Fupping A.

This is the first and only Viet Nam letter so far on Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran. It is the third Viet Nam letter of 3 so far on Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy by Jonathan Hill.

The first greeted the book at its launch on October 22, 2022. The second judged the book by its cover on December 2, 2022.

Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.

The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.