Re: hemingway blech?
Pierrot65@aol.com
Tue, 23 Feb 1999 01:27:43 -0500 (EST)
Re Brendan's post:
I think Seymour was a great guy. I don't just mean that I like him, or admire
him: much of Buddy's recall is in the form of Seymour's actual work in the
journal & poems. You could say that Buddy was being selective, choosing that
which would reflect most kindly on his brother, but I instinctively feel that
that may be too cynical a tack to take. I keep coming back to it again &
again, but: "I have scars on my hands from touching certain people..." I can't
get from there to the idea that Seymour was something else in his "real," non-
poetic, day-to-day life, and I certainly can't come close to any issues of
pedophilia. You bring up Mr. Antolini: I think for that to shed some light on
a Seymour-as-predator thesis we would have to say that Seymour is to Mr.
Antolini as Sybil is to Holden; ie. Seymour in the role of aggressor, or
manipulator, or pervert, (mentor/tormentor) and I just don't see that anywhere
on that beach. I think there is so much overwhelming evidence of a connection
between Seymour and Holden (though maybe Holden/Buddy makes more sense), most
importantly to me the very affliction of "banana fever" as we understand it,
that the above analogy (Seymour/Antolini) doesn't compute.
Just a friendly (but determined) stance.
rick