I'm still here
Neil Whitworth (neil.whitworth@dial.pipex.com)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 20:52:44 -0800
On Saturday 17th Brendan wrote
"The one disturbing thing that I
have noticed is the vast number of people who introduce themselves and
then are never heard from again. That's very
disappointing to me, but I don't know what to do about it besides to
encourage them to join in."
As one of those people who joined quite a long time ago, but who rarely
posts, I'd just like to say that I'm still here. I am obviously more of a
reader than a writer. I enjoy the list a great deal, but don't feel the
need to comment that much (or perhaps it's more that I feel I lack the
intellectual ability to make a useful comment).
Having said that, I have two things to say today. Firstly, Brendan
mentioned about Boo Boo's real name. Seymour addresses his letter In
Hapworth 16 to "Bessie, Les, Beatrice, Walter, and Waker" I believe, so I
assume Boo Boo is Beatrice.
Before my next point, I should point out that although I may not "read
and run" (I joined this list didn't I), I am most definitely "an amateur
reader" so if my reading of Salinger is not very insightful I'm sorry,
but heh, I know how much I love those books.
In Bethany's post of Sat, 17 Jan. she sees the narrator of Laughing Man
as
"like some sort of infiltrator in the world of his parents,
an impostor with some vague and incomprehensible
reason for living where and when he does."
I think that it is in fact adults who are the infiltrators, children know
what it's really all about. Adults (I think) get all bogged down in jobs,
money, politics, food living in the real world and other *unimportant*
matters. Whereas children feel an integral part of the world, what they
do in it is important, it's their world and they are in control of it.
THEY KNOW.
JDS hasn't lost this like some adults and that's why his writing touches
me so deeply, because he triggers off those memories in me.
That's all, be kind to me.
Regards, Neil