A Jumble After Jet Lag
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:10:16 -0800
1. William Maxwell: Alas, couldn't help but recall that quote from a
Louise Bogan letter (6/26/65): "The Salinger [Hapworth] is a disaster. B.
Maxwell came to call, and rather deplored its total cessation of talent."
2. A tape recorder and JDS's voice: Anyone, offhand, recall any
references to JDS's speaking voice in the secondary material? Or have
_heard_ it and care to report? [Somewhere between Seymour's and Buddy's?
"Seymour's speaking voice, his incredible voice box, I can't discuss right
here....I'll just say, for the moment, in my own unattractive Mystery
Voice, that his speaking voice was the best wholly imperfect musical
instrument I've ever listened to by the hour."]
3. Hemingway/JDS: Don't know of any more EH quotes re JDS, but wonder how
EH would have felt running across a reference to _A Farewell to Arms_ (in
chapter 18 of _Catcher_) as "a phony book". (In the same chapter Holden
says, "I was crazy about _The Great Gatsby_.") Or, for that matter, in the
section re sports in _S:AI_, "Have I still not made my peace with the
afternoons of youth when I fled Reality, via the Third Avenue "L," to get to
my little womb off third base at the Polo Grounds? I can't believe it.
Maybe it's partly because I'm forty and I think it's high time all the
elderly boy writers were asked to move along from the ballparks and the bull
rings."
4. World War II: Reading those posts, thought of JDS quote from 10/24/45:
"So far the novels of this war have had too much of the strength, maturity
and craftsmanship critics are looking for, and too little of the glorious
imperfections which teeter and fall off the best minds. The men who have
been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without
embarrassment or regret. I'll watch out for that book."
5. "An Ocean Full of Bowling Balls": Goodness, if Santa has rewarded
Paul's standing at attention at his fax machine, let me know! If not, I
find it somewhat difficult to reconcile the description of "AOFOBB" on the
"Unpublished Stories" screen in Bananafish with the description of it in
Hamilton's book. Hamilton says the manuscript is at the Firestone Library.
Anyone ever read the damn thing?
--Bruce.