Re: cigarettes and pants
Camille Scaysbrook (the_globe@hotmail.com)
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 18:56:38 -0700 (PDT)
The splendidly named Rollo Rumford wrote:
>>1. Apart from some females and all children in the stories, EVERYONE
smokes. A hell of a lot. I only noticed it because Salinger always
seems to describe HOW the ciggy was lit, what type of lighter is
used, and who owns it.<<
Well, after all it was the fifties and pretty much everyone smoked (:
I guess we only notice it because so few (comparatively) smoke today.
My parents are always going on about how everybody spent all the time
puffing away. Whole decade must have stunk like an ashtray.
>> 2. So many of Salinger's characters, too, have ill- fitting
'pants' (we call them trousers in england) around the 'seat'. The
'pants' tend to be too big there. Or at least if Salinger has blessed
a character with decent fitting clothes, he still puts in a reference
to the seat of their 'pants' somehow. No point here at all. But I
swear if i were a writer all my characters would wear fitted clothes
and hats. I wouldnt go cheap on them and make them look silly as
salinger does.<<
I think maybe this is something to do with the Zen separation between
mind and body - characters like Teddy and Seymour don't seem
comfortable in the `clothing' of their own bodies. Buddy goes to a
lot of trouble to describe the unattractiveness of himself and
Seymour in S:AI but it seems to only serve to emphasise its disparity
to what's contained within. There's so many similies about to clothes
which are appropriate here - `flying by the seat of your pants' ,
`Walk a mile in another man's shoes', `Didn't feel comfortable in his
own clothes'.
Both things seem essentially about performance - I've always thought
of cigarette smoking as some very peculiar form of performance art.
Initially no one would take up smoking other than to `be seen' by
somebody, even if only themself. Likewise, clothing is an attempted
construction of our personality to be put on show to the outside
world. Those who can't match their inside and outside tend to be the
ill-dressed ones. Makes me think of Sally Hayes' little butt-
twitching skating dress - little on the outside, little on the inside
(:
By the way, Rollo, I'm not sure what mail programme you use but your
messages always come to me appearing blank! The only way I can read
your messages is by clicking `reply' and reading the message in the
reply. Please tell me where I may get some of this cybernetic
invisible ink (: Why is it always my mail programme that screws up???
It's only Microsoft Internet Mail 4.0!
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
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