Subject: Re: A Very Consequential Party, 1926
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 12 2001 - 22:08:04 GMT
Matthew, first of all, I join you in enjoying "Hapworth 16, l924." I
wrote an essay about it for Mark Wondra who started a small magazine
called Roofbeam. The essay was published in l998 and as I pulled it
off the shelf, I think that I need to revise it...but one point that
I made that may be of interest is that Seymour, the author of the
letter that is the story, has withdrawn from summer camp society to
write the letter from the camp's infirmary. In some ways, I read the
story as Salinger explaining that withdrawing from regular doings and
reading a lot was a way for him to advance. In any case, I was a
reader who loved "Hapworth" and will happily wait for more Glass
stories no matter how long or short they are!
However, I am not waiting for more Glass stories to better understand
Seymour's suicide. I have to admit that I think Salinger has given us
enough hints in the longer Glass stories, and I'm also thinking that
suicide is too complex to be really understood, even perhaps, by the
person taking his or her own life. Scottie may have better insights
here about suicide but it seems to me that most suicides are too
confusing to untangle without the corpse coming back to life. I don't
know, but I'm guessing that Salinger doesn't want to explain things
thoroughly...I think it's more his style to put out the essential
elements to let readers put the elements together themselves. He's
not the type of author that will instruct readers to insert part A
into slot B. I know you aren't saying that Salinger is likely to
detail the events and concerns of Seymour so that the suicide makes
sense, but as long as we are imagining Glass stories, I've always
hoped for more stories about young people...more about the Glasses
growing up...for example, I'm imagining "Bessie's Driving Lesson"
where young Seymour (with Buddy in the back seat of course) learns to
parallel park while Bessie (and on alternate occasions Les) fills the
ashtray and talk endlessly about vaudville and taking trains.
I guess what I'm really saying is that I can't really imagine what
Salinger has/is writing about the Glass family, but I hope it's
something I can't predict! will
-- Will Hochman Assistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
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