Subject: Re: Digesting four weeks posts in two big chunks
From: Mattis Fishman (mattis@argoscomp.com)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2000 - 12:47:26 EDT
Cecilia, and all,
I can see that proposing that the letter of Hapworth is not
to be taken as Seymour's writing would provide answers to some of
the issues you mention, the mature voice and what appears perhaps to
be Buddy's too eager reassurance that this is indeed a comma for comma
copy.
But then it opens the more difficult question of "why?", or "what does
it add to my understanding of the story?" Just as suggesting that
Franny was pregnant might indeed account for some of the events
described in those stories, yet at the same time changes those books
from a sublime, subtle study of a spiritual crisis into something
more trivial, I wonder what we gain by the reassuring thought that
Seymour was only a little more human than we were at seven years old.
I can accept that Buddy is not reliable in Seymour an Introduction
because from our point of view that work is patently about Buddy
confronting his own relationship with Seymour, and his difficulty
writing about it, as we come to realize how much Buddy himself
has gained from both having known Seymour and having written
this recollection. That is, while it claims to be about Seymour,
it is not so much the actual facts that Buddy presents that are
important, as much as Buddy's perceptions and interpretations of
these facts.
But Hapworth really isn't about Buddy, and when I ask myself
what insight do I get from considering that maybe Buddy himself
decided to boost our impression of his big brother by disguising
his forty year old insights in awkward and outrageous language of the
proto-poet, I get mired in wheels within wheels and do not come up
with anything satisfactory. Besides, instead asking myself, I'd rather
ask you. Do you, Cecilia, care to elaborate on your previous post?
Or does anyone else have an opinion?
regards,
Mattis, rhetorical, for a change
who is happy to have a working space bar at work, and a broken one
at home
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