In a message dated 8/16/99 6:06:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rbowman@indigo.ie writes: << '... So we're not really trying to recover the author's "intent" for the piece, but we're trying to reconstruct cultural codes ...' Cultural codes, Jim? What are they then? Scottie B. >> What do I mean by "cultural codes"? Is that your question? You were describing them in some detail in your post. You described the feeling associated with that particular piece of music, the setting for the music, the mood, and you did so all pretty accurately (I trust). Therefore, probably accurately, you interpreted Salinger's reference to that piece of music with all those visuals, those feelings, that mood and setting. That song title, in the story, served as a "cultural code" for the visuals/feelings/setting/mood, communicating all that simply through its mention. All language is a series of cultural codes. The English spoken by Salinger is, therefore, just a shade different than my English. He can communicate in codes lost to me but meaningful to someone of his own generation -- you :) This only works retroactively, I think. You can hear an REM song today in its own setting. I can't hear the music of the 40s -- early 60s in its own setting. It's not that much of a stretch for me, but it still is a little bit of a stretch. Jim