Re: How many children had Lady Macbeth?

Subject: Re: How many children had Lady Macbeth?
From: Louise Z. Brooks (invertedforest@angelfire.com)
Date: Fri Feb 18 2000 - 00:52:25 EST

No, you misunderstand me. Of course Salinger did not kill off Seymour to annoy his critics, it's the central mythology of the whole Glass world - but nor did he toss away the burden of writing himself into a corner by starting the Glass stories in such a startling way. And yes, I do think that his explanation is a hall-of-mirrors type proposition. It's an ideal way of explaining Salinger's reclusiveness, actually - because if you walk into a hall of mirrors, you see only yourself, from every conceivable angle. Salinger writes to every person in that hall of mirrors; sometimes he does not even seem to be aware that they are all himself. How dispiriting (for me) to think of communication as such a one-sided affair! 

---
Louise Z. Brooks
"Invention my dear friends is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation and 2% butterscotch ripple." - Willy Wonka

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000 00:08:37   AntiUtopia wrote:
>In a message dated 2/17/00 11:31:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
>invertedforest@angelfire.com writes:
>
><<  It's this question that all of the subsequent Glass literature ponders - 
>and Salinger's perception of the question and its answer has changed in the 
>ensuing years. Therefore, I think it's unnecessarily facile to claim that he 
>did it just to fob off the critics.
> 
> (but your compliment does at least make me feel a little better about 
>constant trips to the Inbox when I should have been working, Jim! ;) )
> ---
> Louise Z. Brooks >>
>
>Nah, you misunderstood me.  Salinger didn't kill off Seymour of fob off the 
>critics.  He added the Buddy Glass Really Was the Author of Bananafish gloss 
>to fob off the critics.  Seymour's suicide is in a class with Holden wanting 
>to go live in a cabin and Franny having a nervous breakdown - it's a 
>rejection of society by the sensitive and perceptive on the basis of their 
>idealism.  So the suicide itself is very important.  
>
>It's the authorship issue that's a gloss.
>
>I would modify that though.  I think if we use Buddy's Glasses "authorship" 
>of Bananafish as a commentary on the creative process and, perhaps, on 
>Saligner's view of his own creativity (and the meaning of his writing to 
>Him), we may find ourselves on some interesting ground.  But if we use 
>Buddy's authorship of Bananafish as an interpretive strategy for Bananafish, 
>we do nothing more than walk into a hall of mirrors...
>
>Jim 
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