Re: Salinger's world

Camille Scaysbrook (c_scaysbrook@yahoo.com)
Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:09:25 +1000 

Jim wrote:

> Catcher and Ulysses are narratives describing a journey home.  That's
about 
> as common as it gets :)  People have been doing that in many, many
cultures 
> for thousands of years.  

Yes ... that's exactly the point I am making - that the story follows a
fundamental universal narrative (that of the journey) which, despite being
set in a very specific time and place, transcends that time and place and
becomes a story of pretty much universal recognition. I don't know how
`Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' goes, but I know exactly how Holden felt as he
heard it coming from the carousel, as surely as if it had been `Perfect
Circle' by REM. It's the act of observation itself that we identify with,
not necessarily what is being observed.

> But think about "Franny and Zooey."  "Franny" is about Franny talking
with 
> Lane in a restaurant then having a breakdown.  "Zooey" is about Zooey
talking 
> with his mother in a bathroom about Franny having a breakdown.  I can't
think 
> of any immediate parallels in world literature off the top of my head :) 

> This kinda validates Scottie's point, I think, about the nature of at
least 
> some of Salinger's fiction -- he's writing about a narrow range of 
> experiences.  I still love F&Z, of course, simply because of its
attention to 
> the "observation of details," as you pointed out.  But that's only
because 
> the details being observed are very familiar to me, and invested with a
lot 
> of meaning.

*Exactly*. Jim, this is just what I said! That judging Franny (or as you
point out, Zooey) on the same terms, we just don't get the same effect.
Although I can sympathise with that enormous stocktake-list of the Glasses'
bathroom cabinet, I can't empathise with it. I think that's the difference.
All those details don't mean anything to me, because Franny and Zooey are
two stories that had to happen in New York, that *couldn't* have happened
in ancient India. It totally and entirely vindicates and validates what
Scottie said!

Vive la on topic !!!

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com


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