Re: Treasure
SonikSka (SonikSka@aol.com)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 22:55:36 -0500 (EST)
hello all---
< What does everybody think about the"treasure"that everybody is trying to
pile up and how Zooey says(maybe Franny)says that knowledge is not any better?
>
when i first read F&Z, my freshman year of high school, this was probably the
one passage that had the most effect on me...i really got to thinking about
that, and i must say, i don't find much room for dispute in the theory...its
extremely true. i see it every day, on a certain level, when i uncomfortably
take notice of my peers [as you may recall, i'm a senior in hs] college-bound
for no reason at all. its certainly understandable to want to further one's
education, as is my case and the case of many. i love literature, thus, i
want to major in english...simple. however, you'd be [maybe] surprised at how
many people have lost the real reason for education---its become nothing more
than the desire to pile up treasure, treasure of knowledge and often prestige,
that would be...
and god, i know every terrible, sad-making [which, though franny seems
dissatisfied at her inability to think of the word there, is indeed the only
word that can truly express it] person who paints scenery in summer stock,
takes a writing course at brown in the summer, sees plays for the sake of
becoming culturally enriched, etc etc---they're everywhere here. [as i'm sure
they are everywhere else]. and myself, i live in somewhat constant fear that
i'm a section man, or on my way...
the most obvious case of this piling up of spirituality, religion, etc, seems
to me to be the attitude toward religion taken in the medieval times...back
then there was really no pretense of charity---whoever contributed the most
money, prestige, artifacts, portraits, etc, to the institution of the church
was held in esteem as a holy and good man. a person would exchange one genre
of currency for another--simply pile up his religion, like a fortress or gold
coins...and presume that that was sufficient. and it was then and it is
now...but what makes it so disgusting---and i think holden saw this too---is
that people don't know they do it, really, they don't have a name for it and
they know--maybe?--that there is something wrong, but they try and hide it...i
think that what franny saw as sad-making [and the only word i could come up
with in relation was 'futile'] holden saw as nauseating and phony. it is one
thing to have a character disgusted at phoniness, but it always seemed to me
there was something more than that, bordering on what we see franny absorbed
in in the first part of F&Z. which is, for me anyway, where the actual nausea
effect comes in...
wow, that was long...
bethany