Subject: Re: complex list (Beam me down, Scottie!)
From: Benjamin Samuels (madhava@sprynet.com)
Date: Sat Mar 25 2000 - 10:39:56 EST
----- Original Message -----
From: jason varsoke <jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com>
>At first I'm tempted to say that you should always read as
> the author wrote it. The idea being a simple one. More than anything in
> Fiction you are following an author's creative wanderings.
What this leaves out, Jason, is crediting the author as an artist who
intentionally arranges what is collected on the wnadering. I'd be willing
to bet that most of the stories as we know them didn't just slide out of
Salinger pre-completed. Example being recently discussed addition of the
whole intro to APDFBF after trying to get it published as just the beach
scene plus the end in the hotel. On the other hand, I could easily see SaI
being almost genuinely written by Salinger living pretty darn close to how
he describes Buddy.
But then I am completely biased. I like Buddy quite a bit and he can pester
me anytime.
> I don't think there is any way possible of getting a sensible reading
> on APDFB after you've read Hapworth, or even S:AI. You must read APDFB
> first, without Buddy leaning over your shoulder. APDFB is a completely
> different story with Buddy
Could you expand on that? I think I'm partial to a reading of APDFB with
all it's relations to the other Glass stories. To me it seems too
mysterious on it's own. Here's a really nice guy, makes a parable about
bananas and worldy things and then shoots himself in the head? It says a
little something, just not aything really great or interesting the way that
the Glass stories together do about the tragic, beautiful aspects of the
enlightened life in the modern world. And even more so, about love, and how
it lives beyond death.
> I'm with Scottie in one respect: Seymour is pretty unrealistic and
> annoying. But in APDFB, w/o Buddy, he's near perfect. The only guy I
> like better in a short story is Alkie Alkilovich (Gogol's "Overcoat").
This also confuses me a little. Which Seymour is unrealistic and annoying?
I'll give you some good grounds for that in Hapworth but otherwise he's
presented always through the eyes of his loving younger brother and seems
neither too unrealistic or annoying to me. And perfect in APDFB? Well, you
saw my above desciption of him there in isolation of the other stories.
I'm not familiar with Gogol but I'm excited to go read "Overcoat" now.
Love,
Madhava
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