Subject: Re: Eric 'n' Seymour
From: Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@virtual.park.uga.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 04 1997 - 10:57:21 GMT
On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Steve Gallagher wrote:
> An interesting exercise would be an attempt to describe any one of JDS's
> secondary characters, *really*--in your own words, what they look like, who
> they are, based only on the superficial details provided by the author. I
> think you'll find that any physical and psychological descriptions you
> muster up will be complete fabrications based entirely on your imagination.
Salinger would be a very poor writer if his readers could not describe his
characters' psyches, appearances, and generals "characteristics."
Zooey describes for Franny his vision of the Fat Lady and discovers that
Franny has a similar vision of a similar Fat Lady. I think most readers
who happen upon this passage construct for themselves a vision of the Fat
Lady, and I suspect there is a great deal of consistency from one
reader's vision of the Fat Lady to the next reader's vision of the Fat
Lady (even down to her physical appearance).
Re Eric: if Eric's peculiar (stylized, even) vernacular is *not* in part
a suggestion about his sexual orientation, then what is it? What *does*
it suggest? Is it entirely neutral? Is it the only phatic space in all
of fiction? Similarly, how do you read Eric's intense association with
_Beauty andthe Beast_?
> What do you *really* think Seymour is doing when he comments on the colour
> of Sybil's bathing suit? Confusion?
Did Will mention this already? Ability to see beyond ordinary conceptions
of reality and difference (oh, my God! Seymour as the the precursor to
differance, Seymour as the unwitting deconstuctionist...). We can also
look at this as the *in*ability to see what everybody else in the West
plainly perceives. Salingerian translation: "blue, yellow, what's the
difference? I've got better things to think about."
> I'm currious, how did you read "'Whirly
> Wood, Connecticut,' said the young man. 'Is that anywhere near Whirly Wood,
> Connecticut, by any chance?'"
I've always read this as playfulness. The kind of thing you say to
children for fun.
It's far too early for me to be writing anything. Apologies for
syntactical strangeness. STEVE: none of this is supposed to sound
fractious. I thought your post was quite good.
----------------------------
mkozusko@virtual.park.uga.edu
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