Subject: Re: Cheever and Salinger
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 11:39:41 EDT
ok, what? What I see is wordplay :). Sybil said she saw six tigers. For
that reason, she then said she saw a bananafish with six bananas in her
mouth. What does the number do beyond provide a basis for wordplay in
Seymour/Sybil's dialog?
What, then, is the point of a single bananafish eating as many as "78"
bananas? Rather than running to a Kabbalistic interpretation of 78, common
sense tells me that everyone's just pulling numbers out of their heads :).
There's no point is saying "it has to mean something" unless you can say
what that something is, and give specific reasons for linking that specific
something to Salinger or the story.
It's not enough to just say that Salinger read a source. He read a lot
:). That doesn't mean everything he read influenced every story he wrote.
Jim
midge immington wrote:
>
>
> Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
>
> My point was not that the number was absolutely insignificant,
> but we need
> to consider the possibility that it may be. And that, if we are
> going to
> make associations, they can't be random or simply guided by our
> own
> imagination -- Salinger himself would have to give us reasons
> for that
> association. Sticking to the context of the story, the number 6
> doesn't
> seem to recur, so it's not given any significance that way.
>
> ***
> Hi!
>
> "I thought they'd never stop. I never saw so many tigers."
>
> "There were only six," Sybil said.
>
> "*Only* six!" said the young man. "Do you call that *only*?"
>
>
>
> [two pages later Seymour says]:
>
> "Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and
> eat as many as seventy-eight bananas."
>
> [next page]:
>
> "I just saw one."
>
> "Saw what, my love?"
>
> "A bananafish."
>
> "My God, no!" said the young man. "Did he have any bananas in
> his mouth?"
>
> "Yes," said Sybil. "Six."
>
> The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil's wet feet, which
> were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch.
>
> ***
>
> Something's going on!
>
> --Midge
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