Re: I'm still here
NovenA16@aol.com
Sat, 07 Feb 1998 00:09:48 -0500 (EST)
Ok.I sent these 3 emails a few days ago and I don't think anyone got them.I'm
really behind on my mail so these posts might be kind of old.
<< Bawer states, "Salinger is more
>interested in having a family of incurable childlike adults to play
with
>on paper than he is in trying to figure out how people like that
*really*
>get to be that way or how they they might manage to become (horrors!)
>emotionally healthy adults."
> >>
I think the stories show how they've became that way and how they can manage
to become healthy adults.I'm not going to explain how they've came that way,I
see it throughout the whole book.But the part about them becoming healthy
adults,isn't the ending a possible turning point for Franny?I mean,isn't the
ending a possible turning point for Franny?(did anybody catch that?)But
really,I mean Zooey's telling her this.He's learned something.That's what the
fat lady is all about,isn't it?A reason to move.Everybody's always becoming
healthier,aren't they?The fat lady is the manager of this.It's managing Franny
and Zooey to stop complaining and do what the hell they want to do.At first I
was just going to write,"Bawer's full of shit."And I should have said
that.Bawer's full of shit.
<<
<< 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?
<< And hadn't the thought further occurred to you that Every Main
Character in F and Z were Actors? What does that say about their
personalities, their speech habits, their mannerisms? I felt--especially in
"Zooey" and in his dialog with his mother--that the two were deliberately
trying to manipulate each other using the tricks of their trade. >>
<< If you're going to write about the redemption of the soul I don't
think it's humanly possible to do so with any conviction whilst
setting your story in the Upper East Side. The stews of
St Petersburgh perhaps, or a carpenter's shop in Galilee, or
the Gulag Archipelago. But who'd really want a painting of
the Resurrection by Warhol ?>>
Ok.That first quote I was thinking that that guy is just saying that Salinger
is shown within his characters.But then with the 2nd quote and more later on,I
find you to be a lot like a few people I have me in my short life.You act like
the character's Zooey and Bessie are a piece of work that's easy to
achieve.They're not.Try it.This list has talked about the frustrations of
saying what you really want to say.And Salinger does it beautifully.He might
not think that,and has had those same frustrations then and now with the
present.But I don't see how Zooey's wit and understanding cannot entertain
anybody past a certain level of thinking.And Bessie's not typical.I really
don't think so.It's hard to explain.Those characters are not from any
movie.The family's interesting to say in the least.The events and
situation.But I like what the characters(especially Zooey)say and feel.I'm
glad you got me to write about something to this list.I haven't said anything
in awhile.Just been listening.I don't really like what I've said here.I'm
sitting here at a computer having trouble writing about this.I can't imagine
at this point in my life writing Franny and Zooey.--Jared.