Re: Teddy

AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Mon, 05 Jan 1998 12:24:48 -0500 (EST)

In a message dated 98-01-05 10:57:55 EST, you write:

<< Brendan, your "of course" attitude shows how limited a reader you really
 are--there are many good reasons to construct the story with an empty pool
 and a pushed/dead teddy, but there are enough reasons to create some very
 valid doubt as well.  Readers who are certain of one interpretation
 without understanding a legitimate field of possibility may be praised for
 their enthusiasm, but not their wisdom. will
  >>

eh, not necessarily.  This is a general priniciple as far as literary
intereptation goes, but there are limits to interpretation as well.  While
there are numerous possibilities in interpreting any literary text, unless
you're prepared to say "anything goes" you have to admit to numerous
impossibilities.

For example, my speculation that Teddy was a reincarnation of Seymour is
getting more and more improbable, especially since it now seems that "Teddy"
is a story supposedly written by Buddy Glass.  But the idea that  Holden
Caulfield is an adolescent male is something that only the Densest Reader
Imaginable wouldn't catch.  The fact that arguments can be made against this
thesis does not mean the thesis isn't pretty solid.  Of course other
interpretations are possible.  They are just a whole lot less likely.   

Now, suppose I were to say Holden Caulfield is based upon Salinger as a youth?
That would take some proving.  It's at the other end of the interpretive
scale.  It's possible, but nowhere near a given.  Suppose I were to say Holden
was a code character disguising Salinger's dream of a homoerotic encounter
with a teenage boy?  I'd say this one is off the interpretive scale, but now
that I've said it, I bet someone would try to draft this argument....

In Teddy the last paragraph is meaningless in relationship to the rest of the
story if the "sustained scream" (since the scream "from a young girl" was
sustained, and not suddenly cut off, Teddy's sister wasn't the one who fell in
the pool) wasn't the reaction of Teddy's sister to having unknowingly pushed
Teddy in the pool.  Now, this thesis is less solid than, say, saying Holden
was an adolescent male.  More reasonable people will debate about what
happened to Teddy at the end of his story than about who Holden was in the
novel.  But I still think it's closer to the certainty end of the scale than
the other end....    

Jim