Subject: Re: Salinger's Fire
From: Joshua Stott (jstott@bigplanet.net)
Date: Tue Jun 13 2000 - 11:28:30 GMT
My comments within the message:
> To the question, Could Seymore not have picked up a gun in Florida?, Cecilia Baader wrote:
>
> True enough. And it's not an impossibility. However, given that he pulled
> the gun from his suitcase, I would lean more towards the planned suicide.
Point well taken. It would be the most obvious answer to say that he
had brought the gun with him in the suitcase. The gun-buying-in-Florida
idea was to simply avoid the possibility of Muriel and Mom finding the
gun in the suitcase.
> We don't know that [Seymore had considered suicide previously],
> no, but it's alluded to. That car accident could have been an
> accident and it could have been a previous suicide attempt. Looking
> at trees, Seymour said... In RHTRBC, Seymour states in his diary
> that Muriel has told her mother where he got the scars on his wrists--
> but that is outside of this story and we don't know that it was on the
> author's mind when he wrote it.
Both good points. The car wreck and the wrist scars do allude to
possibile previous attempts or at least to him having considered taking
his own life/letting it be taken from him.
Maybe the best thing to do then, is to remember that (and I'm sure this
point has come up already) in _Seymore..._ the reader is told that the
story of Seymore's suicide in Florida is not based on facts, but is more
of a characterization of the vacation. I suppose any idiosyncrasies
within the story or with the story and other Seymore facts can be blamed
on the simple fact that there is probably nothing to the actual events
of Seymore's vacation in _Bananafish_ but rather they serve to give us a
picture of Seymore and his death, like a haiku would, factual or not.
> Just a couple of points for you, Josh the newcomer. And a quick welcome to
> you. Thanks so much for introducing yourself.
Thank you for your thoughts and clarifications, as well as your welcome
to this group.
I'm afraid I'm naive to any group/posting etiquette, so if I step out of
line in some way, could someone please kindly set me on the correct
path? Thanks again, and in advance.
Josh
A semi-newcomer
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