The problem with Franny,

Josh Feldmeth (sportcarrier@earthlink.net)
Thu, 10 Jul 1997 10:23:30 -0700 

Tim, 

it sounds as if you were raised in a formal, structured, lituragical church (sounding like 
the church lady), maybe CATHOLOSISM.  Zooey's adive/critisim concerning Franny likely 
mirrors a common critique of your own tradition (if my guess about your background is 
correct).

Although I am a proponent of chanting, the Way of the Pilgram mantra is, for Franny at 
least, not a good thing.  I disagree slightly with you in that I don't think her crisis 
pivoted on a devotion to prayer.  Incessant prayer was only a manifestation or reaction to 
a deeper problem of confused obligations. 

I have always thought that Franny was wrestling with "the conventional" and her displeasure 
with it.  Should she play the Ivy League debutante or should she follow her heart and go a 
more unconventional way.  You remember the goal of the chant was to move the words 
themselves from a deliberate prayer to an involuntary movement (like breathing).    By 
chanting "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" over and over again, Franny could 
simultaneously avoid a world of expectation (as microcosmed in the resturant with the boy) 
by "tuneing out" while honoring a Biblical descipline of "pray(er) without ceasing".   

Zooey's contention was that she (Franny) had not found her own faith.  Her movements were 
more sign than symbol, not natural responses from an internal Virtue Ethic.  

Ob Irrelevance: thanks for explanation on that failed e-mail Tim.  You really are taking 
your list master duties seriously.  

Tim O'Connor wrote:

> 
> I think you have something there; the religious -- I generally think of it
> as "spiritual" -- nature of Franny's crisis is, of course, built around her
> devotion to the prayer, and Zooey's advice to her (though drenched in
> references to wisdom of various denominations) seems to me, in its lack of
> specifics, to be so secular, it nearly bypasses what I think of when I
> think of formal religion.
> 
> That's a strange bias on my part.  I grew up in a world where you got the
> proverbial "A+" just for doing the mechanics of it, which explains my own
> dislike of traditional religious conventions, and which makes me appreciate
> the amorphous spirituality of the Glass family.
>