Re: and the winner is ...

Matt Kozusko wrote:

> Nice to see that Kim
> has (with Cecilia's
> help) doubled the number of people on the planet
> who've read both
> Ranchan's and Alsen's unreadable books on Salinger.

While the number has not yet increased, I finished Alsen this morning, with
Ranchan to be sought out today through inter-library loan. Awakened yet
irritated by his interpretation of the stories, I was curious about what
this crowd thought about a few points of his interpretation.

First, of all, his analysis of Seymour's life doesn't seem satisfactory.
Much of what I've thought about Seymour, as a sort of bodhisattva figure,
seemed to be negated by Alsen's perspective. Glorifying Muriel's life
wasn't something that I was prepared to do as a reader, particularly with
Salinger's continued theme: overcoming the "phoniness" of the world.

Also, I'm wondering what people thought about Buddy's claim that Seymour
wrote the "Hapworth" letter. I had always seen this as either Salinger's
striking back at the critics with his portrayal of an unrealistically
precocious youth in response to their claims about his work or, simply, a
portrayal of just how gifted young Seymour was. Perhaps the thought had
loomed at the back of my mind that Buddy could have drafted the letter, but
I wasn't prepared to take his claim at face value without additional
analysis.

As far as the style of literary criticism that Alsen used, it seems like
some of his block quoting was unnecessary. While I know that my AP
Literature class isn't exactly enough to bring me up to the level of
professional critic -- and, ironically, might even lower my abilities to do
so in some instances -- it didn't seem very well-written. Scattered words,
unnecessary and unproven adjectives, and a lack of structure were all
nastily present and lessened the insight that Alsen had to offer.

Anyway, I'm curious about what the rest of you thought, if you have indeed
managed to truck through Alsen.

-Kevin
kevvsan@attbi.com

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Received on Sat Mar 15 16:40:22 2003