2 Q's


Subject: 2 Q's
From: William Hochman (wh14@is9.nyu.edu)
Date: Fri Feb 18 2000 - 13:29:52 EST


Dear All,

I have to respectfully disagree with Jim--I don't think making Buddy a
writer is screwing with critics--Salinger wrote about writers before he
had critics publishing comments about him.

Buddy as a character who is also a writer writing the story gives
credibility to his character and distances Salinger from the illusion of
making ficition. In fact, if Buddy is a fictive character creating a
story, it's a bit like multiplying two negatives to get a postitive. Call
it a prepositional trapeze act of suspension of disbelief if it helps you
see that Salinger's creation of Buddy is a narrative
tradition. Sheherazade comes quickest to mind as a character/narrator,
but there are hundreds of examples.

Ok, ok, it's a snow day, and I got sent home early and as I watch New
England begin a weekend of snow, I feel myself falling into the pure joy
of dancing with these ideas and apologize if the above paragraphs are a
bit gruff...Bruce Springsteen sings "We may find it on the street,
Baby" and Baby, this is the street I love walking...

So here's my dancing q--Do Buddy and Seymour differ enough to be separate
characters, even if brothers?

Another way to see this q--Does Buddy represent telling and Seymour the
content of later Glass stories?

will

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