Subject: RE: Cheever and Salinger and Six again
ZazieZazie@hetnet.nl
Date: Mon Jul 08 2002 - 18:32:43 EDT
Eeh,
maybe there is a connection to the 'Six degrees of Separation'? Or maybe it's the other way round? After all SDOS mentions Salinger quite extensively. And has anybody thought about the fact that 78 divided by six is thirteen, the classical Western, Christian number of ill luck? [Somebody on this list detached 'western' from 'Christian' which I find odd ...]
Six in German (a language which gets mentioned somewhat in his work) is 'Sechs', which is pronounced as 'sex', so maybe Seymour was referring with Banana Fish to his you-know-what?
All this talk about sixes and sevens, wow! Me, it makes me of how it must have been 60.000 thousand years ago (oops) when cavemen heard thunder, and thought that there must be a Higher Power Determining Their Lives.
Man is not a rational animal, but a rationalizing animal and this discussion about attaching meaning to 'six' certainly proves it. I've got nothing against finding connections between the work of an author, his life and his readings, I think Will said, there is FUN in that, but sometimes you all get so serious ...
Zazie
-----Original Message-----
From: "owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org" <owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org> on behalf of "Cecilia Baader" <ceciliabaader@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2002 5:44 AM
To: "bananafish@roughdraft.org" <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Subject: Re: Cheever and Salinger
--- Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> Nah, Cecilia, you REALLY need to read Umberto Eco's _Foucault's
> Pendulum_ if you haven't already :)
Um, yeah. I have, actually. However, I don't think that Eco's grand
vision has anything to do with "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". You've
built a straw man by even mentioning it, in fact.
However, to address your argument: that you can make numeric connections
to *anything* doesn't mean that no connections exist. Especially in
Salinger, understanding the subtext often depends on ferreting out the
most insignificant details. The story (besides "A Perfect Day for
Bananafish") that best illustrates this point is "The Laughing Man".
Think about the baby carriage and the other tiny details that point to the
reasons behind the breakup between the Chief and the Beaver-coated
heroine.
I've long thought that there was a meaning to the numbers in bananafish,
and the Kabbalistic meaning to six seemed possible. It still does, in
fact, especially given Salinger's background.
Regards,
Cecilia.
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