Re: a watching brief
Sundeep Dougal (holden@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in)
Sat, 08 Aug 1998 00:21:51 +0500
Hello Tim, forever the gentle host,
with a kind word for even those who seek to
surreptitiously slip in. . .
At 11:39 AM 8/7/98 -0500, you wrote:
>There is a principle that ought to be taught in Reclusiveness 101, which is
>that when you let down your drawbridge, you leave yourself open not only to
>hurt, but (worse, for a recluse) to public exposure. I can't imagine that
>Salinger was able to open his life to someone, *a writer*, no less, without
>at least imagining that she might eventually pop his bubble of silence.
>
Much as it must be obvious, I think the one bit at least where Hapworth is
revelatory about our man in seclusion is where he talks about Seymour's
early blooming sensuality (also, now that I come to think of it, alluded to
in Teddy - well, okay, in Teddy it is not Seymour that he is talking
about!). . . I mean, he does seem susceptible, as almost all of us are, to
the ways of the flesh - remember even Betty Eppes sent him some rather - I
think the word she used was - 'alluring' photographs before he agreed to
meet her. Also a self-avowed _writer_ by the way. . . Our man does seem to
relish the idea of acting as the patron saint of young, debatably
_beautiful_ women. . . (Maybe he feels that he can act as the - alley oops!
- CITR for them, the poor, naive writers needing protection from the big
bad world of publishing, eh?) The pattern is, to my mind at least, rather
distinctive.
Now, not for a moment am I deriding it or finding it objectionable (or even
suggesting, however tenuously or remotely, that he's some kind of a
profligate philanderer, or a sex-fiend for Chrissakes!) just that it seems
to be a part of his personality. He seems congenitally, almost
compulsively, to be blind to all thoughts of the potential public exposures
vis-a-vis these women. Perhaps he thinks that he's being discerning as hell
- for all we know, he may well be; perhaps these are only two exceptions in
the recent past to have been so invited. . . In fact, I'd go so far out on
a limb as to suggest that Betty Eppes blew her chances. After all a single
man living a hermit existence does need companionship, doesn't he?
I of course say all this in the time hallowed traditions of idle
speculation and gossip - pure and unadulterated wind baggery!
But, to come to your point, yes, I think the whole exercise _is_ fraught
with such potential, but, then, in the past, at least, people close to him
have been more sensitive towards his, what has been called, almost
pathological need for privacy.
>
>> DYLAN: I must have identified with him.
>
>Oy.... To quote from Paul Simon's "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I
>Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)":
>[Sung through the nose, with Dylan-style harmonica interposed throughout.]
>
>I don't know why, but this popped into my head when I read the interview
>excerpt, which made me laugh out loud.
Hmmmmm! I think of the same song, through some strange hard wiring in my
memory cells I think, whenever I use the word 'desultory'! And, Tim, may I
venture as much as to add that it may have been the very same reason for
you too, because I did use the word in my last message that you responded
to - and then there was Dylan! These two word associations are enough to
spur one on this song, I think! In fact, I had once earlier mentioned on
the list, when the songs-where-Salinger-references-are-made thread was
going on, that I had always been convinced, through a flawed memory of
course, that Salinger also figured in it. The lyrics use to go somewhat on
the lines of the following:
I have been Jerry Salingered
Joseph Hellered,
I have been Douglas Adamed
And Bob Dylaned
I have been Roger Watered
And Cohened till I am blind
I have been Paul Simoned
And John Lennoned . . .
Whew! What a lotta names. (Hi Will and Malcs, I may not speak much on the
list but I lurk all right - always a pleasure to read you two, and all the
others!) And, to end on some more trivia - I remember reading a complaint
from Simon in his early days (actually it may well just have been an
attribution in the kind of pop-psy one loves to indulge in: "he must have
felt" etc.) that he resented feeling overshadowed by the more famous Dylan.
In a kinda recent Dylan interview (or perhaps a not so recent one; but one
that I either read or re-read recently), he acknowledges Simon as having
written some great songs. Big praise this, coming from him. Butt with you
never can tell. As his Dad used to say. . .
Sonny
still in the midst of a hot and humid summer, waiting for the long delayed
rains!