Subject: Re: Reclusion?
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Fri Mar 24 2000 - 03:09:14 EST
Denis's surmise about the effects of war on Salinger
was certainly the basis of the biographical film that
appeared a year or so ago on the BBC. People interviewed
in that film & who had known him 'before & after'
all seemed to agree that 1945 marked the great change.
The hunt for simplicity & 'innocence' in the rural life
& in the company of children was presented as his reaction
to the horrors of the Huertgen Forest & Belsen.
I'm pretty well persuaded - though I'm also aware that
it fits possibly too neatly into what has become almost
a stereotype of the returned soldier. Old Ernie was one
of the first to popularise it in stories like Big Two Hearted
River & Soldier's Home.
The phrase that comes to mind is another of Hemingway's.
Describing the evolution of Ignatius Loyola after HIS
experience of war, he speaks of: 'the wound that made him
think...'
Scottie B.
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat Apr 01 2000 - 10:11:40 EST