I love the way texts come to you at need. When I was trying to envision Johnny I had a chance encounter with The Botany of Desire. It describes Chapman lashing two dug-out canoes together, filling one with seeds, and heading downriver to the wilderness.

Johnny is the emblem of the germinal visionary. The Trickster who sows a gift, only to find something very different growing up. How American can you get?