Glass Theory 101

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• Previous message: J J R: "Re: Shallow Intellectual Drivel on this List"

Well folks, for those of you who have complained that we talk too much on this
list about this intellectual stuff and not enough about Salinger's works
themselves, I've come to your aid, at least briefly (I hope).  
So I've just finished reading Raise Hight the Roof Beams, Carpenters, (and
started on Seymour...)for the first time (they never had it at my bookstore so
I finally ordered it form Amazon), and I would like to present a few questions
and observations. (these are my questions first, and I must warn you, this is
pretty long, so I'd suggest you go get yourselves a Tom Collins...) Here goes:

1)  Who exactly is Buddy Glass?  Is he the "Alter Ego" of JDS only in the
Glass stories, or in the others as well.  In "Seymour..."  Buddy says that
many people have asked (not asked, told) him that Seymour was the inspiration
for the main character, a teenager, in his one and only novel (he also points
out that he has written 2 other stories about Seymour, "Raise High..." and
"...Bananafish", but I will get to that in just a moment, if you'll allow me).
This seems to be a clear reference to Catcher in the Rye, so is Salinger
saying that Buddy was the author of this as well?  Did Buddy write everything?

2)  If we view Buddy as a real person, writing about the Glass family (which
of course he isn't but Salinger wants us to so I'll indulge him...) and he
wrote "...Bananafish", how could he possibly have known about what Seymour
said on the beach and what else he did, when Buddy himself obviously wasn't
there (of course, one explanation is that other characters from the story told
him about Seymour's actions and words, but the way the story is written it
doesn't appear to be a second (or maybe third, whatever) hand account)?  One
thought that came to my mind is that Buddy made it all up.  Except for the
suicide, naturally.  No one could really refute him, except for Seymour, who
is, after all, dead.  Maybe he was just trying to dramatize Seymour's last
days and hours.  Maybe nothing (save the suicide) that we have read about
Seymour ever happened.  After all, in "Seymour, an Introduction", Buddy says
that there are 2 Seymours, the real life one and the one that he has written
about.  Seems clear to me that at least part of it is exaggerated.  After all,
it's not at all unbelievable that a little brother who lost a big bro to
suicide would try to at least dramatize his life in print.  And so how can we
trust Buddy's other writings about Seymour?  Perhaps Hapworth (which I haven't
read yet but I will once I get back to college and have time to look it up in
the old New Yorker microfiche...) was completely made up by Buddy as well...

       Those were my questions, and here are the observations:

1)  I've finally found someone who uses parentheses as wildly as I do. 

2)  Maybe Salinger didn't put too much time into finding a publisher for
Hapworth.  Maybe, like Buddy says he's going to do with Seymour's poetry,
Salinger simply found "...the first willing publisher who owns a pressed
morning suit and a fairly clean pair of gray gloves..." to publish it.  

       And Finally:
3)  I think Salinger reveals himself greatly in "Seymour, an Introduction" and
"Raise High..."  I feel like I almost "know" him now that I've (at least
partly) read these two stories...

I know this was too long, and I figure only one or two of the 250 or so
Bananafishermen (or Bananafisherwomen) have actually stuck around long enough
to read this far, but if you did, thanks for hanging in there...  Until next
time...

JD

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