Re: The Inverted Forest

--- Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Kim -- I wasn't thinking psychopath. I was thinking
> sociopath. But we're along
> the same lines.

i've haven't read the story in a while, but i think
salinger himself uses the word 'psychopath'. and
that's the shocking thing about it.

overall, i found the story sort of grotesque, and sad.
 the whole bunny croft angle. and the descent into
booze and back with 'the brain'.

there are some wonderful things in it. the early
meetings with corriene at the chinese restaurant. and
the line about a poet doesn't invent his poetry, he
finds it. and i do like the two lines of poetry aaron
quoted yesterday. (in seymour's defense, in the
comparison, the keats poem was written at age eight.)
i like the story because it exhibits salinger's early
involvement with poetry. if i'm not mistaken, ray
ford is the first poet in salinger's work. (could be
wrong on this.) i know some critics speak of ford as
a prototype for seymour; i just don't see that.

 
> Are you saying Salinger wished it was never
> published because of the connections
> people drew between him and Ford, the poet?

i'm just guessing that the grotesque portrayal of the
poet might not be the later salinger's take. and sure
he might not want to see the working out of
psychological matters so brazenly exposed. though i'm
not saying that ford is a self-portrait. but people
might mistakenly make connections. also, it's that the
story, at least in my memory of it, is so
out-of-character with his other earlier works. (but i
haven't read the underpublisheds in a while and don't
trust this statement myself.)

 
> Bunny Croft the biggest poetry groupie ever? Or do
> you mean Joyce Maynard? :).
> I can see why Salinger may have regretted publishing
> this thing.
>

i find the current-day maynard's behavior not
enviable. but as to 1972, i think we must remember
that salinger initiated the relationship, and
controlled the relationship from start to finish.
maynard wasn't a groupie in the sense she really
wasn't aware of salinger's work. she says she hadn't
even read 'the catcher'. (i don't know if i believe
that.) anyway, i haven't read her book since it came
out. but i do think a careful reading of it does
allow us some insight into salinger's personal world.
(or at least back in the early 70s.)

kim

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Received on Tue Mar 18 12:30:38 2003