Re:Teenage spirituality...

Diego Dell'Era (dellerad@sinectis.com.ar)
Fri, 20 Feb 1998 23:31:52 -0800 

Scottie wrote that Jung suggested:
---
(...) young people who became obsessed with the religious & spiritual
(which were *his* concerns) would do better learning to live with their
own sexual, competitive & survival instincts.  
---

	Exactly. Sounds like inspiring, get-off-the-couch advice. However (this
will be off-topic, I'm afraid) Jesus wasn't over forty when he caused
all that trouble to the romans back in the old days. And he did tackle
with his own sexual drives (not very satisfactorily, I'll admit, but
hey... no one's perfect ;) ) and his competitive and survival instincts
(he put them aside, lighted a Murad and moved to other things, he hoped
to God). 

Then Scottie sounds young yet experienced :) :
---
Time enough for pondering & evaluating the ends of existence, he
suggested, when one had acquired some material to work with.
---

	Exactly. I'm still too immature to post anything regarding that, but
perhaps the concern with the ends of existence is not the religious
topic involved in Franny's crisis. Moreover, it isn't even the main
point of all religions. As a christianity-rooted writer over forty like
Buddy, the ends of existence are important (how can he go on living with
Seymour dead?). Franny, I think it's sort of ethic's stuff, isn't it?
How to behave ethically having been trained with Zen methods. 

	Holden has the appropiate mix of both religion and every day life, and
we sympathise with his young vagueness. The Glasses all share eagerness
for meaningful details, since they are self conscious artists, and, as
Jim pointed out, we too expect meaning from details. I think that's the
way I approach F & Z: it is a religious story for the characters inside
it (while they should venture to live love stories), and a love story
according to the author, the frame of the story (who should be
extracting religious meaning according to his age). So, the way I see
it, the formal design of F & Z mixes what love there is in religion, and
viceversa, through Zooey: he works like a religious lover, and a loving
preacher.

	The influence of age in my liking of the story is negative: it appeals
to me because I can't understand passionate love nor the ends of
existence, but I strive to understand their intersection. I don't know,
what do you think?

	(Rereading this, it seems Scottie is right, malgré moi. This message
will be automatically destroyed in 5 seconds...)

-- 

diego dell'era  (dellerad@sinectis.com.ar)