Subject: Glass, McArdle...
From: a.d.y. (adyada@theworks.com)
Date: Mon Jun 02 1997 - 01:17:25 GMT
>what's with the comparison (rather obvious i guess)
>regarding the lovely 'just slightly crossed' eyes of both Teddy & Seymour,
>which characters seem to have?
(sorry i haven't introduced m'self yet, but since i've been very interested
in the seymour/teddy relationship, especially over the past few weeks, i'm
just going to jump right in..)
I've always been sort of struck by how UNlike the two characters
are---alluded to in the difference in eyes, et cetera... and especially in
the attitude toward the fruit: seymour gorging himself until he catches
banana fever (i remember buddy mentioning how he was 'wild about' almost
*everyone*), and teddy vomiting up the apple for enlightenment (and he never
seemed too wild about anyone---he simply had "affinities"). also, the
different takes on Poetry are extremely revealing. but i love how both
stories end, especially when you look at them together: the loud sound (one
hand clapping?), and a female on the sidelines... But wow, something
that's really caught my eye is the foot contingent: Nicholson's legs are
very heavy, grounded---logical, filled with the apple; Teddy's feet never
seem to be mentioned (not that i can recall right now, anyhow), except when
he's standing on the luggage and it's noted that his feet are well *on* the
bag, not in the air (but also not on the ground); from the last scene in
APDFB, seymour is entirely self-conscious of his (and also, i can't forget
the quick kissing of sybil's). i know the foot thing can be brushed off as
common ol' freudian symbolism for a lotta people... but taking into
consideration ssalinger's comments on noses, i don't think he'd leave it
merely *at that*. has anyone caught anything else? (of course, this whole
topic was prob'ly covered FAR before i got here, and i'm the last one to get
any of this...) BUT it all seems to go right along with the [i think
BEAUTIFUL] image of seymour throwing the rock at charlotte, this weakness
for earthly things that he has. (and surely j.d.s. finds it more interesting
and personal than teddy's asceticism; how many teddy pieces are there? how
many seymours?) The earth has a very real power to KILL seymour ("that kills
me," says holden!), and the christ- link from there isn't too far, i don't
think. even holden mentions how he can't stand the apostles, since they're
always letting jesus down. ("digression! digression!") oh yeah but--- the
banana fever, charlotte's yellow dress, the yellow scars on S's hands---oh
gosh, those images are so lovely! even seymour's nicotine-stains, keeping
him "grounded" ('if he didn't have a cigar to hold onto, his feet would
leave the ground. we'd never see our zooey again')...
Okay, i'm already talking too much---what happens when you keep reading
salinger and don't have anyone readily available for discussions. Several
years of backlog, here. i'll go to bed.
-amber (also a thought---i mentioned noses a little earlier; what
discoveries have you guys made in the area of the Salinger Nose? and another
wee thing: i've been having a little trouble with the two "double-haiku"
seymour-poems buddy describes. i have a loose grip i think, but i was
wondering what revelations any of YOU might've had...)
-
To remove yourself from the bananafish list, send the command:
unsubscribe bananafish
in the body of a message to "Majordomo@mass-usr.com".
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Oct 09 2000 - 15:02:02 GMT