Re: Re: Nuns
Brendan McKennedy (the.tourist@mailexcite.com)
Mon, 22 Dec 1997 11:35:18 -0700
Will says:
>Brendan, I think you may be overextending
some religious thinking (it is
>the season) and overlooking the point that
nuns are not a very good focus
>for sexual energy and yet that's what jean
is doing in DeDaumier Smith's
>Blue Period. Maybe the idea of beautiful
and talented nun is what the
>young man needs to hit his head against to
continue the hurt of
>adolescence, and when his art and manhood
mature enough, he can focus on
>"the American Girl in Shorts." After all,
jean never hears from sister
>Irma but stays in touch with bambi kramer!
Will
You're probably right, but right now (perhaps,
as you said, because of the season) I can't
seem to be satisfied by that. The reason the
religious theme resounds to me is because of
the very deliberate (it seems to me) juxtapositions between Jean's assumed Buddhism
and his Japanese-Presbyterian house-mates. Being a
nun is a very extreme way of being a Christian,
and so deliberate a writer as Salinger wouldn't
use so strong a character-type without Meaning Something by it.
I would perhaps be able to read De Daumier-Smith and
just accept that it's about precocious teen
angst were it not for the extremely
Glass-like, very strange Transcendental moment
at the end. That odd epiphany sort of tells me, "There's more to this story than
you see on the surface, so go back and look more closely."
Of course, the biggest reason for my probing
into the theme of religion is because of
Jean's thematic connection to Holden's confused affection for the nun in the train
station.
What do you make of that encounter?
Brendan
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