Re: Certainly


Subject: Re: Certainly
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliabaader@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jan 12 2002 - 23:02:32 GMT


--- Suzanne Morine <suzannem@dimensional.com> wrote:
 
> I mean, there really are people out there to watch out for. Love
> everyone: ptooey. Sometimes that really just encourages self-centered
> people's selfishness. That is worse than saying nothing.

Oh, I don't know, Suzanne. If you go around protecting yourself from
everybody, sooner or later you so insulate yourself that it's impossible
to go on living. Isn't that what's happened to Holden? And hasn't he, by
the end of the novel, figured out that it's not the way? You can't move
to a cabin in New Hampshire and be a deaf mute with a deaf mute wife and
write notes to each other all the time. Real life, real living, just
doesn't work that way.

> I disagree with this. You're generalizing as much as the "hate all
> phonies" policy would. I think Holden is rightfully angry
> at the phonies who are clearly not trying and who confidently disregard
> the human/frail side of life. Commander Blop was going to crush
> Holden's hand just to seem cool.

That's just degrees of the same thing. What have Commander Blop's
experiences been? Do you know that he did it just to seem cool or did he
do it because he was nervous? Or because his abusive father beat it into
him that he had to have a crushing handshake or he'd be crushed? Or does
Holden have a limpfish handshake and is as a result overly critical?
We've got the story from Holden's point of view, remember, and he's a
great liar.

Commander Blop may well be the ass that Holden perceives. Or he may not.

> I think people with discernment (such as himself) can tell that.

I think that people with discernment can tell in most cases but in all?
No, I won't even grant the Pope infallibility, so how can I grant it to
Holden? Or the hat check girl? (Don't forget that Holden is a generous
tipper.)

I don't discount your point of view. In fact, in practice, I'm more apt
to lean toward your side of the fence than mine, but I honestly think
Salinger's point in this (and in the Glass family stories) all goes back
to that "Everybody's the fat lady." Everybody's a phoney, everybody's
Christ.

Thanks for your response, Suzanne. Sorry I was so late getting back to
it.

Regards,
Cecilia.

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