a slice of life
Mattis Fishman (mattis@argos.argoscomp.com)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:18:25 -0400 (EDT)
Camille has once again reached over from Down Under and written:
>I think the universal texts are the ones which instead of seeming to be a
>little piece of action on a stage, can be imagined to be taking place above
>and beyond the action we are presented - in short when it is somehow more
>than the sum of its parts...
and further:
> ... Coming back to an earlier
>argument, we collectively incarnate such characters as Holden and Hamlet
>(and coincidentally, their emotional dilemmas are not at all dissimilar) in
>our minds and hearts, causing them to `live' outside the confines of their
>narrative. We think of what Holden would do in a situation, but we rarely
>wonder what, say, Arthur Dent would.
>Any takers?
I am not quite sure what the phenomenon Camille points out has to
do with universality (and, actually, I am not very interested in
that discussion), but I felt when reading her post that she had nicely
attached a handle to a feeling I must have had when reading Catcher and
many other books. I say "must have had", because the feeling was there with a
sort of on-the-tip-of-my-tongue vagueness, and Camille's observation
certainly helped me to identify it in retrospect. Thanks.
Of course, I more often find myself wondering how Sherlock Holmes would
have handled a particular situation.
all the best,
Mattis "it is fatal to theorize before you have the facts" Watson