Subject: Re: feet?
From: LR Pearson, Arts 99 (lp9616@bristol.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2000 - 15:17:09 GMT
I am currently reading through a large collection of posts so forgive
me if I am repeating anyone.
I had a look through the archives and managed to find my post about the
reference in Rike's "Stories of God":
The young man looked, first with amazement and then with a kind
of respectful pity, AT MY FEET [capitalisation my own]. He must have
seen in them confirmation of my continuous withdrawals [from society],
for he nodded
understandingly.'
Now, I realise this is a little tenuous, but I think this is very
interesting in light of Seymour's feelings about the lady who looked at
his feet in the
elevator.-----------------------------------------------------------
To which Paul replied:
I don't think this is tenuous at all when you consider that Salinger was a
big Rilke fan at the time of the writing of this story. So maybe their was
confirmation in his feet of a withdrawal from the world he was about to
make, or maybe Seymour and Rilke's character just thought that the other
person saw something and it was all in their mind about seeing withdrawal in
feet.
I definitely don't see Seymour's comment as a challenge or picking of a
fight, more a reflection of his preoccupations.
Love, Lucy-Ruth
On Fri, 26 May 2000 01:53:20 -0700 Scout Thompson <one38@one38.org>
wrote:
> I'm curious to know if any of you ever understood the "goddamned feet" thing. I
> remember I read the story because of a friend and I asked him and he was just
> like "Cuz she was a phoney" and I was like "Okay, sure." I guess I was just kind
> of pacified because I, like you, believed seymour was "picking a fight." Like he
> was just pretending she was staring at her feet just to give her a hard time, to
> goof around, play with her....Seymour Glass as Tom Green, you know?
>
> It could be mere irreverence. I mean it could be. I've got to thinking though
> about the "god damned tattoo" which he didn't have (he didn't want people
> looking at his _body_ and so he wore a robe to the beach) and then on his way
> back- he's still wearing a bathrobe, remember, this is something I tend to
> forget, and she looks at his feet- not covered by the bathrobe, the only part
> besides his face- and so maybe a. she DID look at his feet and he didn;t want to
> be seen, or B. She didn't and Seymour was just hyper aware of his body (he
> kisses sybils toes, mind you)
>
> I think B's a likelihood. I mean there have been times of complete happiness
> where I could feel my body literally stretch to feel like it would fill a whole
> room, like not my body, really, but like, the awareness of my body? Like I was
> literally connected, like the lampshade was my arm.
> I suppose its possible that, if you stayed in a maintained state of that state
> (what a terrible sentence!) you would probably see your body as useless and
> limiting......
>
> The other thing is that the Bananafish is Seymour himself, I think. "They're
> very ordinary looking fish coming in"...it says...but then they find this hole
> and eat as many bananas a day- bananas being beauty, you know, or whatever. And
> then they can't get out of the hole. They can't be ordinary fish- and so then,
> you know, we have Seymour very upset not that she was looking at his feet but
> that he has "two normal feet and i can't see the slightest god damned reason why
> anybody should stare at them." NORMAL FEET, you know? He wasn't afraid of being
> seen- he was aware that he wouldn't ever be capable of swimming out of the
> banana hole, and there is Muriel, and his life, you know (we know from later
> stories that he was terrified of the marriage, didn;t show up and they eloped
> despite having a cathedral full of relatives and all that jazz) then here they
> are immediately afterward where seymour is supposed to start his normal
> life.....I'm pretty sure he realises he can't do it. He can't get out of the
> bananahole and so, being a steady believer, we presume, in reincarnation, he
> offs himself.
>
> I mean when one has swum into a hole and can't get out, what do you do? You
> watch what happens outside the hole- and then you die.
>
> -
> * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
> * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
----------------------
LR Pearson, Arts 99
lp9616@bristol.ac.uk
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu Jul 13 2000 - 23:22:21 GMT