Re: The confused entry of a newbie
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:23:33 +1000
I would like to offer a slightly more optimistic hello than did Mr Hotbuns
who apparently thinks the world is against him. I for one am very happy to
have you on a list which is far, far from a being a sinking ship.
Welcome to the SS Salinger!
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> Hi again (again for me, since I tried to mail you without being
authorized)!
>
> I was fooled by the introduction text saying: “ Feel free to subscribe
and
> introduce yourself by sending a message to bananafish@lists.nyu.edu ”
>
> I thought it meant I was to mail you and then, maybe, if I didn’t make a
> total --- of myself, I could join. So I felt real free to subscribe and
> introduce myself, and here is what I wrote:
>
> Hello all!
>
> I’ve been an active Salinger reader for ten years now, meaning that Zooey
> started out being a few years older than me first time he appeared, and
> then, last time I read F&Z, he was a lot younger (as was his behavior, I
> noticed :).
>
> Something about the characters stick on me, makes me come back from
whatever
> expedition I have been on. Jesus asking Zooey if he could have a small
class
> of ginger ale is just something one has to come back to.
>
> The God of search engines, the Alta Vista, helped me find this message
> board. It does look pretty alive and kicking, judging by the bulk of
> messages.
>
> Introducing myself, hmmm. This (The Laughing Man) is really my ol’ zone
> name, from my short period of Internet Online Gaming. The name got stuck
on
> me and now I can almost feel myself crossing the Chinese-French border,
my
> hideous laughter roaming the countryside.
>
> When I do take that alter ego-bag off my head, my eyes rest on the city
of
> my heart, Stockholm. I travel quite a lot (not only between China and
> France), but returning to the clean Stockholm air and the safe sound of
> sirens, I feel totally at rest.
>
> Workwise, I find myself putting a tie on four days out of five. When did
> that happen? I spend years and years at the university, switching from
> physics to philosophy to literature and back to physics, going for grad
> work, than switching again to history of science to actually do grad
studies
> – happily ignorant of dry cleaners, ties and board meetings. And one day
I
> wake up and find myself telling old guys in large rooms what to do in
their
> businesses, power-point being my primary work-tool.
>
> No wonder I go back to my happy days of reading Salinger, “mixing memory
and
> desire”: imaging myself in the back of an army truck (we have mandatory
> military service in Sweden, for your information), endless hours of
waiting;
> or reading aloud to a new girlfriend, watching her reactions; or simply
on
> the cliffs of Amargos, suddenly unaware of the deep blue ocean around me.
>
> Nostalgia, yes. But there is much more to me in reading Salinger. That’s
why
> I wanted to join. To hear your thoughts and share my own. I hope I’m
> welcome.
>
> /The Laughing Man
>
>
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