Re: concern

WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Sun, 02 Aug 1998 13:24:28 -0600 (MDT)

The July 31 Chronicle of Higher Education headline read:

Academic Warns Americans Against Taking Positions at Australian
Universities" and on a nearby page is the story, "New Zealand Urges
Student Drinkers to 'Just Say Forget It': Universiteis use ad campaigns to
combat a long-standing tradition in the country"...I might ask "what's
going on down there?  Is there some truth to scottie's teasing?"

But when I put that shoe on my foot I don't want to be seen as an
"American" or "Coloradan" or even (and I say this with great hesitation
since it's really something my accent and heart won't ever really let go
of) "New Yorker."  

One of the most remarkable things about mr. salinger's fiction for me is
that it transcends geographic limits...I've known young black women worlds
away from Holden's Pencey Prep world zoned into what he goes through there
as clearly as most (ellen's last post about wanting to answer her friends
in catcher terms shows at least holden is not gender bound!), and I think
the confluence of religious "creeks and streams" into his east-west
spirituality continues to show the way mr. salinger's fiction goes beyond
most cultural layers to things in us that are even more, (here it comes
matt and sonny) universal.

No aussie jokes for me but glad that teasing can happen and that maybe
some of the flowing goes mr. salinger's way, will