Kings in the back row
Jonathan Moritz (Jonathan.Moritz@utas.edu.au)
Tue, 10 Feb 1998 12:10:45 +1100
Jane's habit of leaving her kings in the back row in checkers, and Holden's
appreciation of this, might give us a model for how I believe we might show
more reserve in going on the attack/defense of topics, particularly those
not directly Salinger related. Digressions permitted, of course, but
perhaps as simple offerings (like Basho and hailstones!), rather than
extended arguments. I'm sure many, like me, are rare contributors, who tend
to read and run -- or simply run.
Two questions:
(1) How much do we act out Salinger characters in our own lives, and find
pleasure in little happenings, say, checkers, or feet in elevators?
(Off-line link to religious discussion of how a text might be a model or
fundamental basis for one's own life.) If so, a related question is, does
this concern us when people say our favourite character never grew up, was
crazy, or was a suicide/killer (Seymour, Muriel?, Lennon)
I find I act out Salinger characters all the time, with little cause for
concern. The other night, I arrived at a party, it was just getting dark
here in sunny old Hobart ( Will -- Hobart College narrowly survived recent
bushfires), and there were five people sitting on a verhandah, smoking like
chimneys over a few drinks. The conversation between the 6 of us is pretty
ordinary semi-gutter humour, until this stunningly attractive Sally starts
the ball rolling with a comment that brilliant people are either successful
or else go crazy, and I commented "what about Sylvia Plath... she was all
three", and for a good 5 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact, an intense
conversation between Sally and I ensues about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
and the famous story about how they first met at a party, and though he had
a girlfriend, he kissed her, and she passionately bit him on the cheek and
drew blood! In the light of day, I'm pretty sure the Sally I met is like
Holden's Sally Hayes -- an attracted but somewhat incompatible match. And
while my friend and I were playing checkers on the verandah, it made me
think of how Holden's Jane is somewhat like this other girl I know. That's
another story -- but the point is not only do I act out Salinger
characters, but I see other people in connection to Salinger characters.
(2) How much of Buddy's admiration for Seymour do we share? Are we really
made to feel that Seymour is brilliant, successful, and crazy?
I suspect most of us have a lot of time for Zooey, and probably all of us
for Buddy, otherwise we wouldn't have survived his narration. But as we
read the stories, do we find the focal point is Seymour, or rather Buddy's
feelings towards Seymour, expressed and elaborated upon, wrestling with
ambivalent feelings? This, I think, returns us to Alsen's (Glass Stories
as a Composite Novel) two ways of reading the stories... I think the order
of publication, expressing the development of Buddy's feelings after his
brother's death, is more interesting than attempting a chronological order
of, say, Seymour's life.