Subject: RE: Touch
From: horanp (horanp@kenyon.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 13 2001 - 14:28:02 GMT
>Look at Sybil and her foot. We catch a glimpse of the kind of mothering
>that she gets when her mother tells her to "run and play, Pussy" while
>she goes up to the hotel to have a Martini with a friend so that they
>can continue to dissect just HOW that handkerchief was tied. A very
>Muriel-like mother, don't you think?
Yes yes yes! How terrific of you!
>If Sybil's mother is Muriel-like
>and Sybil's way of interacting with the world is unacceptable to her
>mother, she begins to assume the air of Seymour's döppelganger.
Crazy
>eager for affection but unwilling or perhaps unable to accept it.
>Seymour kisses her foot, she says "Hey," and runs away, without
regret.
I think that's really brilliant, Cecilia, and a personal kudos for using a
word like "doppelganger" (my computer doesn't have the two dots which
I don't know how to spell).
>Holden. Holden's in a similar situation, where he's got an older
person
>wanting to touch him, heal him perhaps with that touch.
This is interesting too. You bring up healing: is there perhaps a Biblical
element to laying of the hands on one's head and kissing (washing) of
the feet? This does not seem to apply with Seymour's back, though, nor
perhaps at all due to the Zen theme presented even before "Nine
Stories" begins. Still, Mr. Antolini does have that element of sorts. He
brings Holden in (acceptance), feeds him (nourishment), and later
attempts to "heal" him. As for Seymour, he is almost worshipping Sybil
and her childness. Not on the head, not on the face, not on the hands,
but the foot. Seymour not only worships her but feels perhaps
subservient? The foot kiss in itself is a bit immature, thought may also
be seen as self-acknowledgment of him being the weaker one.
I don't know what you think. This was just a passing thought.
Pete.
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