Japanese? and mostly Re: Back from the dead, or the living


Subject: Japanese? and mostly Re: Back from the dead, or the living
From: Benjamin Samuels (madhava@sprynet.com)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2000 - 23:43:59 EST


(Does anybody else keep getting some strange MSOutlook message asking them
to download two megs worth of Japanese display data? Is this in some
strange way related to the discusion on WWII that is associated with? And
do I have to make the download (and find a translator) to know the answer to
these questions?)

The way you describe it, Denis, makes it seem even more relevent. What must
it be like to be a survivor of that? This might be one of the best ways to
view Buddy- as a survivor. Perhaps a lot of the energy in Salingers writing
comes from those he left behind in the war?

Here's the real million dollar question:

What the hell happened that made Salinger shut the world up so tight?

thoughts, please

Love,
Madhava

PS- I leave this preciously posted message in it's entirety for experiments
on the Japanese question.

PPS- what is that English Post Script I keep seeing- OSD or something? Care
to enlighten the Yankees?

----- Original Message -----
From: denis jonnes <djengltl@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp>
To: <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: Back from the dead, or the living

> To Bruce, Benjamin & all--
>
> Not wanting to push things too far, but feel there's actually a lot of
> anger--plus all the other stuff--in Salinger too. There are probably
> many sources behind this, but what he saw (and perhaps had to do) in the
> war (i.e., Second World War) are probably prime causes. Salinger was
> himself pretty pissed off about Pearl Harbor (but, of course,
> everybody--i.e. Americans--was), enlisting within a few days of
> Japanese attack. I think Paul Alexander's brief bit on the Fourth
> Infantry Division begins to suggest dimensions of what was
> involved--20,OOO casualties (dead and wounded) in 11-month period. It's
> actually a miracle Salinger survived.
> Worth noting for the section men that one of the essays on *Catcher*
> in (I think) the Salzman collection refers to *Catcher* as "a war novel
> once removed".
>
>
> Denis Jonnes
>
>
> Benjamin Samuels wrote:
> >
> > > AND: My dad was born in 1921. ALL he TALKS and THINKS about is WWII.
I
> > > wonder if JDS is back there, I wonder if he ever tried to write that
WWII
> > > novel he speculated about (maybe he's working on the damn thing NOW),
I
> > > wonder if in a sense _Catcher_ and the Glass Saga served as some sort
of
> > > escape from all that he experienced in those four years in the
forties.
> > > Amongst those underpublished 22 stories there is a handful were he's
> > really
> > > grappling with the horror. (I don't think "Esme" is as raw an
experience
> > as
> > > some of the others.) And of course soon WWII is left forever behind.
Ah,
> > > just thought of what Boo Boo said in her letter to Buddy in _RHTRBC_:
> > > "Maybe it's going to be perfectly all right, but I hate 1942. I think
> > I'll
> > > hate 1942 till I die, just on general principles."
> > >
> > > --Bruce
> >
> > I'm a generation behind you, Bruce, my grandparents were in WWII and
both my
> > grandfathers were already dead when I was born. (though not from the
war)
> > So, I've had little contact with living memories of that time. I've
been
> > trying to understand what it might have been like at that time- it seems
all
> > too impossible to imagine for me and my young male compatriots to all be
> > drafted and sent to fight the good fight today. Anyway, what I really
> > wanted to share was something that happened to me last week while
working
> > for the Census. I visited a house of an Very Angry Old Man. After a
minute
> > or so he stopped being angry at me (due, I'm sure, more to his lonliness
> > than to my charm) and started telling me about some his experiences in
the
> > war, which were what was making him mad I can only assume. He recalled
> > being in the pacific, a friend or relative of his had been killed at
Pearl
> > Harbor. He was in the Navy and told me about komikaze (sp?) pilots
bearing
> > down on his ship and he shot a bunch down. Killed seven of those %*%^%
> > [racial slur] &@*##s . I don't know if I'm really doing him any
justice
> > here but he distinctly made me feel like lying down in the grass and
staring
> > at the sky for a while. Imagine all the drama of hearing about the war,
> > getting drafted or signing up, gsaying goodbye, going to training, going
> > overseas all leading up to a couple hours or a couple days in many cases
of
> > intense action.
> >
> > Here's a great line I heard on the radio tonight: "I love reading. I'm
> > never blocked and every page is really good writing!"
> >
> > Love,
> > Madhava
> >
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