Re: a couple of points

Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Thu, 15 Jan 1998 23:14:07 -0800 (PST) 

>Speaking of JD Salinger,

Sorry, I just thought that was the funniest thing I've read on
this list in a long time.



 I was just re-reading Franny and Zooey today and 
>I realized I was going through the whole book just to get to one 
certain 
>paragraph. It's the one where Zooey finally starts talking to Franny 
and 
>he looks out the window and sees a little girl playing with her dog and 
>starts talking about how, doggonit, there are some really *nice* things 
>in the world, and he wishes that he and Franny would take the time to 
>consider *those* things once in a while. I like that part.
>


I loved that part also, mostly because it immediately took me
back to Catcher, where Holden is telling us about the kettle
drum player in the Xmas show at Radio City.  
In case you don't remember, Holden and Allie loved to watch
the kettle drum player because he only had about five seconds
where he actually played, yet he never looked bored 
throughout the rest of the time he was onstage.  Holden and
Allie wrote a letter to the player, but they weren't sure how
to address it--so, of course, ending on a typically sad Holden note,
he tells use that the drummer probably never got the letter.
Still, it was a lovely passage.  It's most reminiscent of 
the aforementioned segment in Zooey because Holden used that
word: "Nice."

Holden only used the word "Nice" when he was talking about the
most beautiful, enlightening, cheering things in his life.  It's
very...ah, NICE...that he only uses the word "nice" when he could
use horribly poetic, extravagant words like "Beautiful",
"enlightening", and "cheering".  Mr. Caulfield amazes once again.

Incidentally, why didn't 
Holden tell Phoebe about the kettle drum player when she told
him to name something he likes?  

Reading that tragic little confrontation with Phoebe, 
I yell at Holden ever time about a million things that he could tell 
her,
things that all throughout the book he's told US make him happy.
That's one of the parts of Salinger's work that makes me glad 
he didn't hand it over to me (since it was very likely he would,
I assure you) and say, "Brendan, what do you think I should put
here?"  Because the rest of the novel would have been Holden telling
Phoebe about things that he really liked.

It's so elegant and sad that he couldn't think of anything but
Allie, poor dead Allie.  It's really one of the book's most
touching moments.  It leaves me empty.

WELL.
Sorry bout, that.  The ol' stream-of-consciousness is back on
her leash now.  Occassionally I forget how strong she is and
let her go.

Brendan

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