Subject: Re: Cheever and Salinger
From: Chris Kubica (ckubica@insightbb.com)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 12:20:32 EDT
Thanks for the info on Cheever.
I wasn't really trying to make a formal claim about "six", I was just
announcing my hunch. I do think it's a nod, though, whether JDS was
conscious of it or not.
Sincerely,
chris kubica
the fm pro, inc.
765-497-2294 (Phone)
425-671-5648 (Fax)
http://members.aol.com/thefmpro/
> From: Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu>
> Organization: Drew University
> Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:56:24 -0400
> To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> Subject: Cheever and Salinger
>
> Chris --
>
> I'd say some of Cheever's fiction was written about people very much like
> those who populate Salinger's work -- semi-affluent or middle to upper
> middle class northeasterners. There are some similarities in style too --
> if you compare, say, Nine Stories to some of Cheever's short stories. I
> haven't read Cheever in awhile so this is off the cuff...but if you want to
> read Cheever, I'd start with his collected stories. You can find used
> copies everywhere cheap...that's been my experience, anyway...both
> hardcover and paperback. I'm not so much claiming influence either way,
> but just observing similarities in style that I think arose independently.
> Probably a reflection of the type of stuff that people were publishing back
> then.
>
> I don't know why Salinger chose "six" Bananafish, but it's not the thing
> that I'd necessarily feel needs to have meaning ascribed to it. The number
> of bananafish doesn't seem significant because I don't think the number 6
> recurs in the story at all. It's not impossible that this was a nod to
> Hemingway of some sort, but that'd just take a bit of research to prove.
> Like a list of significant similarities between that particular work by
> Hemingway and this particular work by Salinger, or a reference by Salinger
> in personal correspondence about this work by Hemingway that shows positive
> influence. SOMETHING :). I don't think thematic similarities are enough
> to show this kind of specific influence...I think we'd need to work on the
> sentence level, even -- something that reflected definite influence. It's
> not impossible but the bare assertion isn't enough.
>
> Jim
>
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