Re: Teddy
AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Mon, 05 Jan 1998 23:17:10 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 98-01-05 22:01:55 EST, you write:
<< Go straight to the head of the class. Salinger uses plot as a tool, never
as a
means in itself. If you don't understand the concept of one hand clapping,
you'll
never understand the ending of Teddy, or pretty much any of the other Nine
Stories
(at least)...
>>
Honestly, normally I'd think that type of open endedness is nonsense, because
those who advocate it have no qualms about telling other people that **they
don't understand.** In other words, they advocate a closed system themselves
while being down on the closed systems of others...
But in the case of "Teddy," and what the story seems to be teaching, it's
probably pretty appropriate. I do see the advocacy of Zen in Salinger's
writing across the boards (tho Teddy seems more influenced by the Vedas than
by Zen philosophy), but I don't see how it makes his fiction style
particularly distinctive. While his style Is different from, say, John
Cheever's, I hardly think it's alien. Cheever's "The Sutton Place Story," for
example, isn't too awful unlike some of Salinger's short fiction--and talk
about an open ending....
I guess what I don't understand is how Salinger uses "plot as a tool" in ways
that other authors don't...clarification?
Jim