Re: The Inverted Forest

heh...I think Eliot and Rilke were on Ford's list too. Also Yeats. I
think Yeats was his first.

I don't recall the dates of Forest, but the glimpse of Ford's childhood
we get leads us to believe that the war had nothing to do with his
particular dysfunction. That would be a real difference between Ford
and Seymour.

But look at the Seymour of B-fish -- just that story, not everything
that accumulated afterwards. He gets along great with the kids on the
beach, but gets irrationally defensive on the elevator (who gives a
flyin' flip if she was looking at his feet or not? Don't people
naturally look down in elevators to avoid eye contact?). The adults in
his life -- Muriel and his mother -- seem to treat him like someone to
be Handled. Muriel isn't nearly as paranoid as her mother about
Seymour's mental health, but there's a history there, something
dangerous involving cars. There's not a single example of positive
relational habits between Seymour and any adult in B-Fish, but Seymour
does get along great with kids.

When I see Seymour and Ford, I see somewhat similar personalities but
not identitical personalities, with Seymour representing one response to
the tensions of his existence, Ford another. Saying the Seymour of
B-fish is pretty sane, well, except for the fact that he killed himself
with his wife in the room is a pretty big Caveat :).

Jim

Kim Johnson wrote:

>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.
>
>
>
>

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Received on Tue Mar 18 15:23:14 2003