throwing rocks at himself (was: gunnery)
Lagusta Pauline Yearwood (ly001f@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:26:40 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Mattis Fishman wrote:
> In Charlotte's case,
> he was also overwhelmed by her perfection, and threw the rock, *not* out
> any desire to hurt her, or place a blemish on this transient world's
> false perfection, but rather in order to reduce the scene of Charlotte in
> the driveway to one which would not overwhelm him (sorry for the same word, but
> I can't find a better one here). As though to cure his bananafever, he
> needed to ruin the bananas. This was a flawed reaction, an immature one,
> when contrasted to his behavior in Raise High, where he eventually gets
> married.
yes, this is exactly precisely what I think as well.
I have always thought that he threw the rock at charlotte because
she was simply too beautiful, too young, those too-long lemon yellow
dresses always just looked too...something, and he had to stop
feeling so elated at the sight of her, because otherwise he would become
too choked with it -- the bananafish syndrome.
> If you wish, you might say that by the time of APDFBF, his fever had progessed
> to where his reverse paranoia (how do you spell that word?) lead him
> overdose on happiness to the point that in order to deal with it he had to
> kill himself. In such a sense, you could call it throwing a rock at himself.
hmm...i think this one of the best explanations of seymour's suicide i've
ever heard. i never thought to directly link it to the rock-throwing
insident, although if i had thought about it i would have realized that
they are basically the same act.
> Even better, can someone enlighten me as to where we are shown what
> enabled Seymour to finally go ahead with the wedding, other than suggesting
> that he just was too sensitive and needed privacy? (Forgive me, my
> own copy has disappeared and I do not have the book at hand)
ok, i'm not exactly positive if i have what you're asking, but here are
the reasons that seymour gives in his journal entry for wanting to marry
(or for simply loving) muriel (well, mostly the things that seem to make
him so happy in relation to muriel):
--her open-mouthed absorption in movies, "how i love and need her
undescriminating heart..." (pg. 66 in the little, brown edition)
--her homemaking qualities ("for desert there was something muriel made
herself: a kind of frozen cream cheese affair, with raspberries in it. it
made tears come to my eyes." (pg. 67)
--the fact that muriel told her mother that he puts ketchup on everything.
(pg 68)
--..."now beautiful it is to see her laugh." (pg 71)
-- her simplicity, honesty. (pg 73)
ah, i think i see a clue to his attraction to her. on page 72 seymour says
that buddy would "despise her for her marriage motives as i've put them
down here [things like wanting to get "a very dark tan and ask her Husband
if he's picked up the mail yet...wanting to shop for maternity
clothes," etc]. but are they despicable? in a way they must be, but i find
them so human-size and beautiful..."
"so human-size." that's what it is, i think.
well, i hope that answers your question.
sorry for my shift key shyness, but i follow all those crazy punctuation
rules all day long in papers and notes and by 9, it's time to relax.
lagusta