Re: Zooey rediscovered
NovenA16@aol.com
Thu, 05 Feb 1998 00:00:35 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 98-01-19 01:49:59 EST, AntiUtopia@aol.com writes:
<<
<< In the Fifties, Oriental philosophy was all the rage. Oppenheimer
watched his bomb going off & quoted the Upanishads to himself.
As undergraduates, we read Gerald Heard & Aldous Huxley & spent
endless hours discussing the freedom of the Unattached Man -
all the while slurping down oysters & Guinness in some of the finest
bars in Dublin. As I remember, we were every bit as sensitive &
dedicated as the Glass children. And although one or two of us
did also manage to contrive our own deaths most of us simply
grew up.
Scottie B. >>
I appreciate the bit of historical setting provided here, and I'd LOVE for
you
to expand on it. I mean it. But aren't you betraying the falseness of your
expectations here? Whoever said the Glass children were supposed to be grown
up? That's the point, is it not? We're talking about a 25 year old male and
a younger female. Yes, some of you did just grow up. But at 25 you weren't
yet. The point, I think, is to depict the struggles of youth with the
growing
realization that their ideals aren't met--not even by those who hold them the
most sincerely. This is not just about a bunch of intelligent kids, it's
about intelligence itself--and ethics and idealism and spirituality--meeting
a
banal, shallow, idiotic world. >>
I've read this email again because of the great topics brought up by Jim and
AntiUtopia,and I was thinking,"Is there something wrong with living your whole
life with the youthfulness of Zooey?"That book is fiction.Isn't that a frame
of mind that we've all had?But we left it to stay in line.Couldn't you just be
out of line and just be like that?I don't find anything really immature about
Zooey.He just can't stand people.And a lot of the time I can't stand people
either.But I appreciate the fat lady,and so does Jim,and I even think that
AntiUtopia still might at times.Maybe a few people on this list can explain
what I'm trying to ask?