Re: A Jumble After Jet Lag

citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Wed, 29 Dec 1999 14:18:48 -0800

citycabn/Tim O'Connor/citycabn:


>
>> 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?
>
>Unusually distinguished, and delivered through one of the finer sets
>of teeth seen
>northeast of Yankee Stadium, a Voice of Authority, as Buddy Glass might
>say.


Wow!  Thanks.  (And a great sentence to boot.)

>> 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."
>
>Whence this quote?  Is it from a letter or is it cited as coming from a
>letter.  This is an interesting point of view, given that the war had
>only just ended.


Very end of chapter six of Hamilton's In Search of....  He says it's from
"Backstage with _Esquire_" (I assume contributor notes for "This
Sandwich...").

>> 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 "Unpublished Stories" screen in Bananafish with the description of it in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?
>
>I have ... with the perspective of later years, you can see threads of
>(a) the creation of a tangled family, though named "Caulfield" instead
>of "Glass"; (b) an obsession with siblings; (c) material that would
>eventually be recycled into Catcher; and (d) a letter from Holden, who
>is at camp, making complaints not unlike those of Seymour, in
>"Hapworth," years later.  (Not intellectual, like Seymour, but just a
>kid.)
>
>It's like a pot of soup with all kinds of familiar bits floating in it
>and dialogue that seems more like Hemingway's character in "Soldier's
>Home" but also with that Salinger rhythm and off-beat spelling.
>
>Not a great story -- more showing rather than telling, to repeat an old
>writer's axiom -- but interesting to archaeologists.
>
>


Many thanks for the report.