Re: Seymour Glass and Josef Knecht?
EEver73319 (EEver73319@aol.com)
Sat, 24 Jan 1998 22:17:41 -0500 (EST)
<<Eric, your question really affected me. Because I like Salinger´s Seymour by
heart and I don´t like Hesse´s male protagonists and their author at all >>
Kirsten,
I agree with most of your points. Hess DOES seem to use all male
protagonists, and he doesn't seem to have a sense of humor. These are some of
the reasons why I like Salinger (spelled correctly) more than Hess. I do
however see the same sort of Utopia in Salinger's work, although a different
type of one. I think Salinger would be very happy if everyone loved the Fat
Lady, and I think he sets some guidelines as to what he believes is an "ideal
person". I think every author interjects his/her own ideals into their
fiction...which I'd say is a fairly elementary statement and idea for all on
this list. :) I do however like Hesse and his ideas too. In my view Hesse
explains his views much better than Salinger...or maybe its just that he hands
everything over to the reader instead of letting the reader interpret the text
which Salinger does more than most. I dunno. Hesse and Salinger both use
Eastern philosophy and religion in their works, which is appealing to me and
probably most on this list. <shrugs> I don't really know where this post is
going, so I'll leave it at that.
Eric