Re: BANANAFISH digest 193
oconnort@nyu.edu
Tue, 30 Dec 1997 18:20:20 +0000
On Tue, Dec 30, 1997 at 03:46:47AM -0500, Elizabeth J Respess wrote:
> something i loved about jds's stories when i first started to read them
> was the feeling of being dropped into a room full of people, or into a
> conversation, or whatever the setting happened to be, without having a
> clue of what was going on or what people were talking about.
Yes! A lot of New Yorker writers did this, but the stories in Nine
Stories, I thought, helped draw the reader in more emotionally than what
would happen in a story, say, by Cheever or Updike.
> it. so rich and enticing. i knew nothing about his work before i
> started reading his stories, and you can imagine my thrill at realizing
> that characters in different stories were related to each other! it took
> forever before i had a handle on the glass family tree.
I have a lot of trouble with figuring out family trees and other
convoluted or complex interrelations. Even now, the reference to Walt
in "Uncle Wiggly" still startles me.
> one thing i will be forever thankful for though, is that at the beginning
> of any story that includes mention of seymour his premature death is
> explained. i don't think i could've taken growing attached to him as a
> live character and then losing him. to me, the warning was a mercy. it
> also introduced me to him with a sense of curiosity. before knowing
> anything about him, before falling completely head over heels in love
> with him, i was curious - what was so bad? it began a feeling of empathy
> with the character before i had any sensible reason to be attached to
> him.
That's an intriguing observation. I've always been curious about why
Salinger was so emphatic about DECLARING Seymour's death, in one form
or another, in various stories. Your reaction to that warning is
pretty subtle, and is a good reading of the Glass stories, in a way
I *never* would have thought about.
--tim o'connor