Subject: Fwd: "The Essential Boy Shines Through."
From: Will Hochman (hochmanw1@owl.southernct.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 24 2002 - 12:04:13 EDT
Dear All, my friend, John Gilgun, is a largely respected writing
teacher, small press poet and published novelist whose work I've
admired a great deal for a long time. I "met" him on a creative
writing list in l996 and his ideas have inspired me ever since. I
thought some bananafish would enjoy this lengthy quote because it
links the essence of Holden to a creative writing prompt. I emailed
"johnboy" today and told him my "assignment" is at
http://www.poetserv.org/SRR1/hochman.html...will
>Resent-date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 11:20:22 -0400
>Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 12:07:24 -0400 (EDT)
>Resent-from: hochman@SCSUD.CTSTATEU.EDU
>From: jgilgun411@aol.com
>Subject: "The Essential Boy Shines Through."
>Resent-to: hochmanw1@owl.southernct.edu
>To: crewtonia@egroups.com
>Cc: jrosco@scholastic.com, rprice@wesleyan.edu, hochman@southernct.edu,
> jmcmillian@mac.com, woodfire@ccp.com, Carbergjr@aol.com,
> chironreview@hotmail.com, jtolles@earthlink.net, artifex@pipeline.com,
> jgilgun@tc.umn.edu, Jlive928@aol.com, Lbwrite@aol.com,
> ThespiSJWilliams@aol.com, davidjlamble@prodigy.net, Bhipes1@cs.com,
> uur@earthlink.net
>
>
> Or: "You Know It When You See It!"
>
> When Warren Norgaard visited me on his trip to Minnesota in midwinter to
>deliver slot machines to an Indian reservation, he was sitting on my sofa
>talking to me, all grown up and formal and adult. Then suddenly, apparently
>without thinking about it, he picked up a pillow and hugged it to his chest.
>I said, "I hug pillows that way, too."
>Suddenly the adult Warren vanished from his face and "the essential boy"
>shone through. It was as if a mask had dissolved and the face of the original
>boy was there, in the smile, in the eyes, in the entire face.
>
> At the Belvedere, that great rambling queer construction on the shore of
>Fire Island with its towers and minarets and campy statues in courtyards,
>Jerry was sitting on the floor of my room by a chest of drawers. I forget
>what he was saying and I forget what I was saying. It wasn't something as
>visual and memorable as Warren hugging a pillow to his chest. But suddenly
>the adult Jerry vanished from his face and "the essential boy" shone through.
>When it happens it always amazes me.
>I know it when I see it. It's a surprise and it's a great joy. It is a
>revelation. I've seen the essence of the man and he's still a boy inside. "A
>thing of beauty and a boy forever." It's Platonic.
>
> Mark Doty brought his 17 year old dog to his reading because the dog at
>such an advanced age can't be left behind when Mark goes somewhere. So the
>dog was there in the Wesleyan Music Hall as Mark stood at the podium and read
>his poems.
>The dog took over the whole reading because no one could pay attention to
>Mark as this dog wandered around and barked (always at the climax of each of
>the poems Mark was reading) and lapped Mark's hand and made friends with a
>poodle some woman brought in on a leash. In spite of this Mark remained a
>professional adult poet reading his poems and ignoring his dog. Finally he
>said, "I guess I'd better read a poem about my dog." The poem was about the
>death of this dog which will happen soon since the dog is so old and at one
>point in the poem Mark almost broke down and cried. At that moment the
>professional adult poet vanished and the eternal boy shone through. It was so
>absolutely real and so moving that when he finished his reading I went up and
>introduced myself and shook his hand. I wouldn't have done this otherwise.
>Why shake hands with a professional adult robot poet doing his scheduled
>thing for pay, a thing he has done hundreds of times before? But how can you
>not shake the hand of a man who has revealed himself as the eternal child he
>is inside?
>
> When the real boy shines through it is--oh so totally Zen!
>
> While I was in Middletown I purchased Letters to J.D. Salinger edited by
>Chris Kubicka and my friend Will Hochman (University of Wisconsin Press) and
>I also purchased a book by Salinger's daughter, a memoir of her life with
>Salinger. Because of this, it flashed on me that this "shining through of the
>essential child" is pure Holden Caulfield. This is Phoebe on the carousel in
>Central Park, this is the nuns with their woven baskets in Grand Central
>collecting coins, this is that girl who keeps her checkers in the back row,
>this is "Where do the ducks go in the winter when the pond in Central Park
>freezes over?" I realized that though I read The Catcher in the Rye at
>sixteen when it first came out, I am still Holden inside at sixty-six, fifty
>years later. I am still waiting for Phoebe to raise her fingers at that
>Hitchcock film The 39 Steps (?) just at the moment the villain raises his and
>in the same way. (He has lost his middle fingers so Phoebe keeps her middle
>fingers pressed against her palm.) This shining through of the essential
>child is what Holden is losing at his age and this is what made that novel so
>meaningful to me at sixteen because I was losing it, too. I too was evolving
>into an adult phony. But in fact I realize now at 66 that I didn't lose it. I
>fought every day of my life to retain it. They don't call me "Johnboy" for
>nothin'! Whee. "I don't want to grow up!" "Peter Pan on the Island of Lost
>Boys forever!"
>
> Since Warren, Jerry, Mark Doty and myself are gay men, I asked Robin is
>she ever sees this shining forth of "the essential boy" in straight men. She
>said she does but less often than in gay men. She said that her Japanese
>husband has this essential boy right there at all times and it is always
>coming through (even though the Japanese are so reserved--at least
>officially) and that this ability to laugh and be a boy is one of the reasons
>she loves him. She showed me a photo of him holding up a sushi and laughing
>and said, "This is it." Beside him his son who was about five at the time is
>laughing uncontrollably at his father holding up a sushi that way and I said,
>pointing to the son, "That's the look!" Robin's husband is an artist, a
>printmaker. Of course. How can you be an artist without having that
>"essential child" right there and at the ready at all times? That's where
>your creative energy is invested--in that essential child.
>
> I also asked Robin if she ever saw this "look" in women and she said,
>"Yes, when girlfriends laugh or giggle together. It comes through then."
>
> I also asked a man at the conference about all this and he said
>immediately, spontaneously, "I teach kindergarten kids and there are some
>that either never had that innocence or have lost at by the age of five." And
>I asked myself, "Are there infants born without it?" You tell me.
>
> Assignment: Write about the last time you were with someone and the
>essential child shone through. Wherever he is, Holden will find your
>message--and smile boyishly.
>
> Joanne: I saw this in Blanche's face when she reported to us that her
>teacher had called her "a born writer." I replied, "That's because you are."
>At that moment though she is 76 she looked 46. You should print out and give
>this message to her.
>Thanks.
>
> Johnboy
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