Bananafish Bones
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Wed, 21 Jul 1999 09:30:47 -0700
Recently I reread "APDFB." I won't wade into the quagmire of why Seymour
committed suicide. But I did notice:
In "Zooey" we learn that Seymour died on 3/18/48. Yet "APDFB" was published
on 1/31/48.
In "RHTRBC" we learn that Muriel and Seymour met when Seymour was stationed
at Fort Monmouth in the winter of 1941, and that they eloped in June of
1942. In "APDFB" Muriel says, "We couldn't get the room we had before the
war." A statement which surely implies they were married before the war,
since Muriel is openly saying this to her mother.
In "SAI" Buddy tells us "on the afternoon of his suicide, Seymour wrote a
straight, classical-style haiku on the desk blotter in his hotel room." In
APDFB, after Seymour's return to Room 507, there is no mention of him
writing a poem.
Can anyone make some sense out of this snippet of dialogue in APDFB?
Muriel's Mother: How's your ballerina?
Muriel: It's too long.