Re: caul children
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Tue, 12 Aug 1997 16:58:18 -0600 (MDT)
the superstition of a the caul is that luck attends one who born with part
of the membrane of the foetal sack on his head...
some critics then go on to link david copperfield and remember david
saying "I was born with a cual" and think that is the place that salinger
got the name since we might all agree that the catcher does have a good
amount of allusion to david copperfield and dickens.
I think the caul in caulfield also alludes to luck and remember when souls
like Mr. Spencer or the secretary at phoebe's school wish him good luck,
holden makes it clear such wishes depress him...
but mostly I think how the whole concept of being born with a protective
sack and that being lucky is about the whole holden caulfield. I even can
play with his first name and suggest it's a pun on "hold in." So our hero
holds in his luck and protective needs until he bursts with them...
there, it wasn't as hard as I thought...I first started talking about
cauls and holden caulfield in graduate school and remember taking some
rough hits about being too poetic and playful and don't pretend to know if
what I'm linking has critical merit or if I have all the caul thinking I
put together in l987...but i will when I get my sabbatical in january!
sorry to be so swamped with such wonderful bananafish concerns...in point
of fact I'm a bananafish@work as well as online and I suppose I'm
regretting the time needed to really answer some of the good concerns
raised on our list...but we do go on! will