Re: Salinger's world
Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Thu, 12 Aug 1999 03:03:07 -0700 (PDT)
>yes, i am responding to my own post - i just thought of something else.
You're my kind of gal, E!
i had no idea what neighborhood the
>glasses lived in and any references to their social standing went over my
>head, not being anything i related to. however, as child raised smack dab
>in the middle of the bible belt by a baha'i mother and a unitarian father,
>i related and indeed was very drawn to their struggles with spiritual
>identity. i didn't know the glasses had money until after i joined this
>list. i wonder how much this may have colored my reading of franny &
>zooey?
>
>elizabeth
I remember being somewhat confused about that, too, not totally sure about
the social implications of Upper East Side New York when living in
Smallville, Sweden, at age 17ish. It was for me quite obvious the Glass
family was privileged, especially the social context of Franny and Zooey
gave me that impression, but what bewildered me was the fact that the Glass
parents were old vaudevilles! That didn’t sound like an especially high
status kind of employment to me.
Your own prejudices (and sometimes lack of them) play awful tricks to you,
every time. I remember reading E.M. Forster at about the same age, and had a
real hard time understanding the social implications there. I was kind of
relieved when they made movies out of them, not having to re-read the books
and find totally different stories in there (with movies you kind of expect
differences. Now I have merely revised my memory of the books with my
improved social knowledge, a very flattering technique I strongly recommend;
when using it successfully I can almost believe I now have a total and
complete understanding of Finnegan’s wake after “reading it” in original
language at age 15.)
/TLM
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com