Re: a cuckoo clockmaker

Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Sat, 06 Feb 1999 05:37:16 +1100 

>     Holden is a Freudian too. All those hot house ambiguities 
>     about his siblings.  The repressed, testosterone-fuelled rage.  
>     His obsession with the reaction formation of phonies.  
>     The strangely absent parents.  

I would have thought that Salinger, like Nabokov, seeks to actively repel
any sense of rationalisation under any form of theory such as Freudianism
or Jungism. This, after all, is what Zen is all about, and Salinger on many
occasions (such as those mentioned by Matt) sets conventional analysis up
as a sort of high-relief phonyism - any attempt to analyse is phony, and we
know what S. thinks of phonies (: Bananafish, like Lolita, holds up the
dead horse of Freudianism, concealing the beating-stick behind its back
until just the right moment.

For my own money, I've had many and varied conversations with people on
Jungism, which is definitely the direction in which I tend - and which, I
suspect, Salinger tends, as it is in general a much more intuitive and
abstract concept of analysis than is Freudianism. I had a vehement argument
with someone over the idea of Plato's shadows on the walls of his cave -
viz, are our contacts with other humans akin to mere shadows being cast
from other caves, or are they in the caves with us? Are we all in one big
room or are we in metaphorical hotel rooms, contacting each other over
metaphorical telephones or jail-like mesh covered windows - i.e., can
anyone ever truly know another person? I would say no. However, I do
believe, as Jung did, that there is some fundamental connection between the
human race, somewhat akin to those old terrace houses in Britain in which
the house is a separate entity but the seldom used random storage space of
the attic connects all these separate pods. I just don't believe that we
have learned to tap into this subconscious, but I think there is enough
evidence to say that we are not wholly alone in our thoughts.

Ultimately though I think it's more helpful to look on Salinger with a
spiritual rather than rational eye.

My three cents worth, as D is fond of saying  (:

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest