Re: wha's like's?
Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Sat, 26 Jun 1999 12:15:27 -0400
On Fri, Jun 25, 1999 at 05:24:51PM -0400, Paul Kennedy wrote:
> PS--I've typed a similarly de-alcoholized salutation to my good buddy
> Tim.... on this very list.... I'm beginning to wonder whether the entire
> bananafishbowl is TT....
> Say it isn't so, Rick! (Will? Thor? Somebody?....)
I think Will is still AWOL in the course of moving and taking a
vacation.
Based on some previous toasts -- ah, posts -- I'd say there are not so
many teetotalers here (I had to decline a sip with poor Paul, who had to
endure me soberly!), but that leads to an interesting topic that carries
us back to the usual subject: what kind of appearances do alcohol make
in Salinger's work? We see Holden, of course, numbing himself to the
extent that waiters will allow, as he makes his descent into his own
hell; we see classic Cheever suburban bottlework ("Uncle Wiggily"
and "Pretty Mouth" and "The Young Folks"); but drinking is nowhere
near as pervasive as cigarettes are.
It seems to me that Salinger's drinkers are either sloppy (like Holden)
or a shorthand sign of their times (the characters in the stories
mentioned above). He doesn't seem to focus much on that misty area in
the middle of the field, where the subtle narrative touch of his
stories would be put intriguingly to use.
--tim