a few more points

Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Mon, 19 Jan 1998 09:40:41 +0000 

	Responding endlessly in a picky sort of way to other 
	people's responses can become very tiresome but every 
	so often my obsessionality gains the upper hand.  
	Indulge me ?	
	____________

	Jim:

	When I referred to "New Yorker" dandyism, I had in mind the 
	prose style of the magazine as exemplified in the essays of its 
	editorial page & which I always associate (perhaps wrongly) 
	with E.B. White.  It was the tone of the narrator - Buddy - rather 
	than the extravagances of the actor Zooey that I found a bit 
	ornate.	

	When I wrote of the conversation between Bessie & Zooey being 
	`expository' I meant there was a lot of `telling' going on as - 
	for just one example - when the son explains to his mother what 
	is behind her daughter's problem with the Jesus prayer.  In the kind 
	of book Salinger wrote, dialogue constitutes most of the action.  
	It's what the character `do' to each other, it illustrates their 
	relationship with each other.  Here, it strikes me as a cumbersome 
	way of filling in the context of the story.   I suspect he realises 
	he's in danger of losing the audience when he makes even Zooey 
	ask if Bessie is still paying attention.  And when, later, Bessie 
	asks: `Is that what Franny's supposed to be doing ?  I mean is that 
	what she's doing & all ?' - it sounds like an unconvincing attempt 
	to reassure us that it's all very interesting.

	My mother died quite a number of years ago but our relationship 
	had, indeed, something of the affectionate combativeness that's 
	presented in the Glass family.  But there was never anything 
	`expository' in our conversations.  In the intimate, lifelong 
	struggle for power that characterises most mother & son 
	relationships there's little place or need for `explanations'.

	We British are certainly arrogant.  To typifiy us as `pretentious 
	jackasses' is an expensive mistake made in both the distant & 
	recent past by many simple minded folk.

	The Glass's `large apartment' is situated not as you suggest, 
	in the Upper West side of New York but in `...an old but, 
	categorically, not unfashionable apartment house in the East 
	Seventies, where possibly two thirds of the more mature women 
	owned fur coats....'

	This is not what most of us first think of as the equivalent of the 
	modest carpenter's house in Galilee.  Poverty is not the sine qua 
	non of the religious experience but there seems to be a consensus 
	among the great teachers that it helps.

	And yes, as a somewhat overweight old man, I've not the slightest 
	intention of indulging sentimental fantasies about fat women, young 
	or old.  I do something much more useful.  I treat them every day of 
	the week.
	_______________

	Malcolm:

	Quite right.  I certainly don't wish to offend my Irish neighbours - 
	or jeopordise my own safety - by lumbering them with my prejudices.
	_______________

	Brendan:

	I agree entirely with your assessment of Hughes.  His arrogance & 
	humourless self-importance are as clearly stamped on his dial as 
	are the all-American, decent modesty & dewy-eyed innocence on 
	that of his late wife before her tragic corruption at the hands of a 
	decadent European.
	_______________

	Bethany:

	My congratulations on the splendid efforts you've continued to make 
	in the proper use of capital letters.  They are not going unnoticed. 
	In fact, I shall always think of you from now on as the Good 
	Bethany - as opposed to the Naughty Bethany who persists in her 
	slovenly ways.	___________________

	Scottie B.