Re: Certainly Nuns

Subject: Re: Certainly Nuns
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 07:25:24 GMT

>
>I think it's a mistake to try to link things literary to biographies.
>
>Regards,
>Cecilia.
>
Cecilia, I think it depends on what it is and how it's done. In this
particular case, I'm not aware of any direct contact Salinger might
have had with nuns, so I think the probable biographical link to
Sister Irma or the nuns in Catcher is obscure. However, I think
biographical information about Salinger does enhance my readings.
That's just me though, and I certainly wouldn't say biographical
information is at all necessary to read Salinger.

I once studied with a scholar who read everything Virginia Woolf
read. It gave him a very strong critical position. His teacher was
Leon Edel, who used biographical approaches to Henry James. I'm
romantic enough to I think I learned to use an understanding of
writing processes and living processes by embracing writers' myths.
For example, I love novels by Balzac more than any in the 19th
Century. He wrote 93 novels and drank huge amounts of espresso as he
wrote through many nights. Does his own struggle to write his way to
fiscal ease and earn the "de" class status for his name mirror much
of his plot twisting? Yes! It doesn't mean I pay less attention to
the text, it just gives me another layer of irony or reality to play
with.

If anyone is still reading (I guess the Cecilia hit a nerve!) I can
at least offer a reading suggestion: Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress by Dai Sije is short and sweet. I just sent it to my
80-something cousins who had insisted I read Balzac on my own since
none of my college courses required him. (If I can pass that
suggestion on now to any bananafish, then start with Goriot or Lost
Illusions. Balzac.) Anyhow, I think how the myth of an author works
to influence readers is interesting but not always revealing better
interpretation of the texts. I'm a happy fence sitter on this one,
will 

-- 
	Will Hochman

Assistant Professor of English
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515
203 392 5024

http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html

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