Re: The Inverted Forest

--- James Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> Oh, I think the parallels between Seymour/Ford may
> go beyond both of
> them being poets. There was a kindness about Ford
> that attracted him to
> C. that's somewhat Seymourish, and C. was a woman
> not too dissimilar
> from Seymour's Muriel. Both were emotionally
> disturbed. I suspect
> Seymour preferred the presence of children and his
> family to generic
> adult society, as did Ford. I think the nature of
> their disturbance was
> somewhat different, though.

now that i think of it, in 'bananafish' we don't know
seymour is a poet. we know he reads poetry (in
german) and that he's read eliot. it's a story of a
damaged, sensitive world war 2 vet. isn't 'forest'
pre-ww2?

there we seem to be dealing with some artistic
pathology (if that's the right word) for an
unexplainable, late-blooming poetic genius. and its
demise.

i realize many people view seymour as you describe
above, but i personally don't see the retreat from
adults and excessive preference for his family and
children. he seems to have been a functioning
professor and an okay soldier (until the mysterious
'bananafish' end). granted, much of the time we see
him only through the eyes of buddy, and as a child,
and so we don't get to view him much with other
adults.

i see seymour as eminently sane (this said on the
anniversary of his death). the suicide per se doesn't
bother me as much as muriel being there.
   

 
> Bunny criticizes his work for not
> being "meaty" enough.
> That was probably the saddest part of the story to
> me -- his creativity
> was being ripped off by this woman. His wife had
> nothing but adoration
> for his poetry, and now he's subject to critique
> from an inferior talent
> that lives with him day in, day out. I still had
> the feeling he was
> stuck with Bunny -- no going back -- because she had
> more and deeper
> hooks into Ford, being more of a kindred spirit, but
> that this isn't
> necessarily a positive thing.
>

yes, i agree. i think she wants him to write best
sellers or some such thing. it's all terribly sad.

kim

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Received on Tue Mar 18 14:51:05 2003