Re: Teddy
Peggy F. Jean-Louis (pfj6868@is.nyu.edu)
Fri, 02 Jan 1998 11:40:06 -0500 (EST)
In S:AI, Buddy alludes to having been the author of "Teddy" which leads to
me to think two things. One is that while Teddy was not a reincarnation of
Seymour, he had Seymour's spiritual essence, at least as Buddy saw it, or
as well as he could capture it in a short story. I think for Buddy,
"Teddy" was a precursor to writing about Seymour, kind of a way to work up
to the monumental task so to speak. It's interesting that they both die at
the "end." Maybe Buddy was trying to say that Seymour was also "pushed" in
a sense by fate's hand in order to move to the next, hopefully more
spiritually advanced life.
The other thing is the idea that if Buddy was the author of "Teddy",
he also authored all of "Nine Stories" which would explain the numerous
Glass family references. If that's the case, at what point does Buddy's
voice and Salinger's begin and end? Are they one and the same?
I haven't decided.
Peggy