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October - Autumn and its effects on us - Myths
Airdate: Tuesday - October 24, 1961

WOR Show
Original Airing

audio

(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)

First Spoken Line After Theme Ends

The way it's going - still hanging in there huh?
Opening of show is missing - these are first words of the available recording.

Show Description

[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]   
  This is a classic rambling, observational monologue by Jean Shepherd (WOR-AM/FM New York, October 1961). It weaves personal anecdote, seasonal mood, and cultural commentary around themes of anxiety, myth-making, and the small niches people cling to.

Core idea: Libido Moriendi
Shepherd opens with the idea of 'libido moriendi'  -  an old principle describing the drive, in anxious times, to seek out 'some' object of fear (any object one feels capable of handling). This leads to committees investigating each other, shotguns for the neighbor next door, and a general "marmalade of anxiety." People prefer a manageable threat over the vast, invisible ones.

October as a sinister season
He ties this to October (a "Thomas Wolfe month"), a time of false confidence, malaise, and unrequited starts: novels begun, rotten poems written, loves that never work out. All loves are unrequited; art and literature are attempts to make the equation balance. He references the Munich Oktoberfest as a harvest celebration of having "slud home" one more time before winter.

The slant-lines anecdote
A key childhood story: Miss Larson (a brown-clad writing teacher) publicly praised his 'slant lines' (while ignoring his ovals). He received a gold star and, for weeks, coasted on that validation. When he had to leave the bolted desk with the gold star, he grasped a life principle: once people land a small niche, they hang onto it desperately. Most of us get stuck a third of the way up (mail room, etc.); the lucky ones either never get the niche or go all the way to the top. Even as an adult, when stressed, he instinctively makes slant lines.

Myths (personal and cultural)
The bulk of the piece explores myths:
- Myths form from self-inadequacy and projection (e.g., a friend who believes Shepherd is always on the phone, when he's hard to reach; men who mythologize ordinary women as glamorous or witty).
- People cling more tightly to myths than to facts; myths are superstitions.
- Examples: English food is bad; Frenchmen are superior lovers; life is cheap in the Orient (contradicted by Oriental poetry); Dickens "invented" the English Christmas; flying-saucer believers will reject any contrary evidence as a cover-up.
- Personal myths (about mothers, partners, or oneself - "one day I'll write that novel") are especially stubborn. He proposes a tongue-in-cheek "National Myth Day" to clear them out, noting it would cause chaos.
- Family "set conversations" (e.g., his mother's repeated desire to go to New York "to put on the dog," or ritual talk about Uncle Tom's knee and the Pontiac's carburetor) function as myths that prevent real communication.

Closing notes
He touches on residual guilt (the feeling that any terrible news could suddenly involve you), elevator small-talk and the cruelty of overheard judgments, and how people need something close they can "lick." The monologue ends by asking listeners what they are currently afraid of - what pins they are sticking under what dolls to manage their anxiety via 'libido moriendi'.      
  