Re: Buddhism and Salinger as promised

Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 21:19:55 -0400

I wrote, of koans and Salinger and the suggestion that his writing
somehow resembles them:
 
> > Indeed, this is often suggested.  But can anyone provide an example of a
> > "koan" and then offer a Salinger selection in which there is any trace
> > of significant structural, thematic, or "stylistic" similarities?
>
Camille responded: 
> Well, that's an odd question to ask - I would have thought a koan by its
> very nature would be non-structural, non-thematic and more or less
> non-stylistic; their succinctness and simplicity not exactly an aesthetic
> but a functional element. 

Succinctness and simplicity are stylistic/structural qualities.  

Any class of utterances that can collectively be characterized under a
heading ("short stories," "koans," "sentences") will generally exhibit
regular, identifiable features.  It is, of course, only by virtue of
those features that a group of utterances can be classified together to
begin with.  It is these features I am interested in.  We could
construct a long list of such features for Salinger's writing, and maybe
also for koans.  While the two lists might seem to share some of the
same features in very general terms, I think that under close
examination, the similarities will fall away.  



Koans are very different from haikus. By
> comparing his work to a koan I'm comparing the function - think of `Just
> Before the War with the Eskimos' for example - like a koan it is a kind of
> mystery story whose meaning we must construct out of its apparent
> meaninglessness. 

I'm sorry to push, but again, I am looking for specific examples. 
"Eskimos" doesn't seem to me to be a mystery story without a meaning. 
Even if some significant number of Salinger readers considers "Eskimos"
not to have a meaning, or to be a mystery story, its impact on those
readers (as an intellectual and aesthetic experience) will be
qualitatively different from the impact that a koan would have on the
same readers.  The mystery and meaninglessness of a koan is a different
sort of mystery and meaninglessness from that of "Eskimos."    

The important change that Ginnie undergoes in "Eskimos" (probably its
key moment, I think) has a kind of meaning.  She comes to understand
something about the selfishness and pettiness of her behavior (perhaps I
am approaching a similar moment myself).  I do think that we
might compare her epiphany to the experience of a person figuring out a
koan, but then the story itself is not *like* a koan so much as it is
*about* a koan or koan-like experience.  
 
You could say that about just about all of JDS' writings,
> no matter their length or style. Even his longer works, although they do
> not utilise the `aesthetic' (insofar as it could be called that) of Zen,
> carry this quest to be deciphered.
> 

In what sense do Salinger's writings differ from other writings in their
quest to be deciphered?  What's the gem in there (and where is it?) that
distinguishes Salinger from, say, Sherwood Anderson?  
 

> > > he has also been quoted as saying in relation to his writing
> > > (and before `Catcher' was published) `I'm a dash man, not a
> > > miler. I will probably never write a novel.') He is more
> > > content with short story writing - a method of writing
> > > characterised by its compactness of narration and message. And
> > > one important aspect of Zen is to `convey the message in as
> > > few words as possible'.
> >
> > There is quite a stretch involved, though, in equating short stories
> > (which are generally compact, no matter who writes them) with koans.
> > What about "Hapworth"?  Rambling and verbose?
> 
> What do you mean by this? Of course short stories are compact; that's why I
> said they're so suitable for Salinger's expressions. I didn't say he *only*
> writes short stories, just that they seem to me the most perfect
> distillation of and vessel for his messages - even TCIR is really a
> collection of short interconnected stories.

What I meant is that the shortness of a short story really has little in
common with the shortness of a koan.  

-- 
Matt Kozusko    mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu