Subject: Re: Inverted Forest
From: Jill Urcioli (zooeyurc@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 15 2000 - 19:34:58 EST
I just read "Inverted Forest" for the first time, recently. The thing that
stuck with me is the addiction relationship. This may be because I'm
studying chemical dependency and the circle of addiction is all that I ever
hear about these days.
I was intrigued because I can't recall of Salinger ever writing about
addiction before (beyond nicotine!!) maybe I'm not thinking quite hard
enough, tho. I think Raymond was attracted to Bunny because of what she
represents to him: his mother. Raymond, is given the insight into himself to
know that he has gone to Bunny for that reason. She can give him what
Corrinne never can: dysfunction. His comment to Corrinne about being with
"the brain again" is his acknowledgment of his awareness. Raymond has gone
back to what he views as normal and Bunny can give that to him because she
has lived the same dysfunction.
Bunny seems awfully childlike and I don't know quite what to make of her
manner to Corrinne. Her "hospitality" doesn't quite seem unearnest- maybe
it's that she feels wholley unthreatened by Corrinne's appearance at her
front door. Maybe it's because Corrinne only knew her as childlike - or
maybe it was simply because she is drunk. I think that Bunny's relationship
to Raymond is completely different than her relationship to Corrinne. We get
a glimpse of that when she calls him "stupid" at the end of the story.
All in all I think it's a story about alcoholism and the cycle of abuse -
the family disease and all that.
Another point: here is a poet battling alcoholism. Salinger, a writer who
never battled the disease, and who's deep beliefs probably contrast sharply
against using excessively seems to be making a statement here about art and
drugs/alcohol. Does the story imply that his writing suffers at the hands of
alcohol? I can't recall.
Your friendly lurker,
Jill
>From: "Benjamin Samuels" <madhava@sprynet.com>
>Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
>To: <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
>Subject: Re: Inverted Forest
>Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 18:56:30 -0500
>
>OK, my ploy to get new voices to respond to this didn't pan out with all
>the
>drama between Jim and Camille so I put to all the regulars who must have
>some ideas:
>
> >> I just finished reading Inverted Forest for the first time and am still
>trying to figure it all out. One part that's left a bit open is what's
>going on for Raymond in his whole relationship with Mary or Bunny. Who
>does
>he think she is? And what's her motive? My first impressions of the story
>are all about Corrine- it's her story after all. In that way it can be,
>like the Glass stories, subtitled "encounters with a Poet". And here too
>Salinger gives us some interesting glimpses of that strange and twisted
>phenomena the Poet. I'm curious what the rest of you think about Bunny
>though.
> >>
>
>Love,
>Madhava
>
>
>-
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