Re: Teddy killed booper [was Alexander's Salinger Biography]


Subject: Re: Teddy killed booper [was Alexander's Salinger Biography]
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Date: Sat Feb 26 2000 - 20:24:44 EST


In a message dated 2/26/00 7:48:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, shok@netcom.com
writes:

<< That's funny. I first read Nine Stories in one quick burst, and then
 went on to read other things. I went back and read some of the stories
 a few months later (including "Teddy") and was shocked to find Teddy
 pushed into a pool, as I had sworn it was the other way around.
 
 Maybe it's a bit ambiguous?
 
 -robbie >>

I don't think it's so much ambiguous as oblique. In other words, it's
something you could easily miss on the first read, but wouldn't miss on the
second or third, especially if you took your time to think about what was
going on. Makes me think Hamilton read the story once, quickly, like you,
and came to the wrong conclusion.

That's the way it worked for me, anyways. I didn't quite understand just
what happened the first time I read it, then when I figured out that Teddy's
sister pushed him into an empty pool, I realized it couldn't have ended any
other way. And that there isn't really any other valid reading of the story
(or, at least, other readings would create more problems than they would
solve).

Jim
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