Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: Eric 'n' Seymour]
From: Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@virtual.park.uga.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 05 1997 - 17:14:43 GMT
Steve:
> I'm not sure how I read that passage the first time, but on the second or
> third it gave me cause to stop, completely impressed, because I actually
> saw this little girl in a yellow bikini stoop down and fumble to board a
> barely floating rubber float. That's what I meant.
Of course!! I see, I think, precisely what you mean. Part of Salinger's
narrative technique. I completely misunderstood.
What I'm seeing in Salinger's description of Eric is exactly the
information a reader needs to conclude that Eric is gay. I don't know
what to do with the information in terms of "interpreting" the story, but
I'm inclined to think that Eric's sexual orientation isn't entirely
immaterial. Ultimately, I don't think it has any considerable impact on
my reading. If it had *no* bearing, though, why would it be there?
Certainly stories inadvertantly contain informaiotn that has little or no
bearing on "meaning," but isn't that infromation usually a passive
part--an incidental part--of the story? Eric's sexual orientation seems
to be an *actively* posited part of "Eskimos."
Re: the misinterpretation of the color of bathing suits:
I read every other instance of strangeness in Seymour's conversation with
Sibyl as playfullness, and I think you're essentially right on this one as
well. It can be argued either way. When we get to something like "Little
Black Sambo," though, we have to look beyond simple playfulness and
consider the larger implications of childspeak. "There you go again,
mixing memory and desire" is most certainly a loaded piece of
conversational nonsense--it makes just as much (or little) sense to Sybil
as other things Semyour says to her, but we read it entirely differently.
Matt
----------------------------
mkozusko@virtual.park.uga.edu
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