Re: hemingway blech?
Pierrot65@aol.com
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 01:13:37 -0500 (EST)
I don't know that I've ever read a more dexterous story (of any length) than
"For Esme." We move from the comical observations of army life (the
pointlessness which Paul Fussel makes wonderfully clear in "Wartime," another
recommendation if you can believe it), to the unbelievable playfulness and
heartbreaking charm of Esme and Charles in the tearoom, to "the squalid or
moving part" ("Dear God, Life is Hell," indeed) to "faculties intact." It's
just such a permanent thing of beauty, the likes of which I can honestly say
I've never come close to finding anywhere else. There are issues of identity
here (obviously) which I think we could connect to "Teddy," a story that I
have to admit really baffles (but nonetheless charms) me. There is the issue
of giving up, (maybe) suicidal tendencies and personal damage which obviously
suggests Seymour and Muriel and, sort of, Holden. (If it's obvious, you ask,
why bring it up? Friends, I ask, "Why not? What the Hell?" Ha ha. Anyway.) I
would say (and I'm sure it has been said before, if not here then elsewhere)
that X's encounter with Esme is Seymour's with the girl on the beach, Holden's
with Jane's (?) kings in the back row. Tiny instances of beauty which blossom,
explode and leave shrapnel our respective heroes are unable to digest, unable
to compartmentalize and move on from. I would ask, doesn't this make them (X,
Seymour, Holden) tragic heroes? Does Salinger argue that this is the way to
be? I would also ask, is this all terribly obvious, needless-to-say material?
I have occasionally (but not too effectively) wondered if these are cautionary
tales -- "look on all you hath wrought, ye hypersensitive, and weep."
While it's on my mind, I would also like to say that, to me, it doesn't matter
if Seymour's poems (whether we ever see them or not) are, objectively, great.
I think it's enough that Buddy et al think so -- their thinking it makes it
so. Does that make sense? It feels like it is connected somehow to the idea
that Holden is an unreliable narrator, but at this late hour I can't get my
brain around it. So I'm going to shut up.
rick