Seymour's Suicide
Jaramillojp@kktv.com
Wed, 16 Jul 1997 13:56:14 -0700
I also know nothing about Zen. What does this philosophy say about
suicide?
Scott
Hey Scott
I know a little about Zen (which I think is Japanese for meditation) and
I can't remember anything specifically on Buddhism that speaks of
suicide not any ideas western of suicide like it's a sin or anything but
I do remember this interesting bit: I remember that Zen is a small sect
of Buddhism that emphasizes that the truths of religion don't come from
study in scripture, belief in any deities or from anybody or any
institution and not even from any rational thought process but from a
sudden flash of insight. As I write this it sort of sounds like his
suicide. The gunshot just comes in about like two lines which is pretty
sudden and quick and pretty irrational in that it seems weird for the
story. I mean I had no idea it was going to end that way when I first
read Banana fish.
Also I think Buddhism stresses truth or enlightenment or all those cool
words from experience rather than book study or through accident and all
the externals of religion are not needed. This sort of sounds likew
Seymour kind of running out of places or experience to help him.
Also when I think of Buddha I think of a nice rich kid from India who
just didn't like what anybody else was doing or studying and thought the
real world was just too ugly or phony for him. I sort of think of
Seymour in the same way. Maybe I'm reaching here but I think of him as a
character who sort of is enlightened and can see what others can't
compared to Muriel and rich people in elevators.
I think I'm just rambling but it's kind of fun to think of Salinger and
Seymour as seers or maybe even failed ones. And I wouldn't even think of
Zen and Salinger if there wasn't a sort of Kaonish property (as in Zen
koans like the line from Nine Stories) to each of his stories in that
they aren't quite rational yet you can almost figure them but then you
just can't quite come up with an answer. Or something like that.
Hope I made some sense I wrote this pretty fast.
Suerte
John Paul