Re: waiting for the Miracle

Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Wed, 25 Mar 1998 22:24:40 -0800 (PST) 

 'Why did Seymour
>do it? - the fall in Room 507? From Teddy's point of view, what would 
he
>say? Teddy wouldn't have done it. How would Seymour have explained it?
>Couldn't he just hold on? Say it ain't so.
>


I think Seymour could have held on--and he could have very happily held 
on, which was exactly why he didn't hold on.  His happy life was in the 
way of his dharma, or spiritual mission.

I disagree about Teddy; I honestly believe that Teddy would have killed 
himself without much remorse if he believed that his life was getting in 
the way of progressing toward Nirvana.  Teddy, fortunately for him (or 
perhaps unfortunately, depending on what you think of his philosophy) 
had no Muriel or Charlotte or vast family of geniuses--he had no 
emotional attachment to this life, and in fact found it restrictive and 
a little irritating.  I think if he caught himself beginning to truly 
enjoy himself, so much that he began to fear death or feel afraid of 
losing what he had in this life, Teddy would have killed himself.  After 
all, while he may not have actively committed suicide on the big boat, 
he expected his death, knew its details, and he walked into it without 
any reserve whatsoever, only mentioning it briefly in his journal with 
the vaguest note of indifference.  

UNLESS, of course, you think that he foretold the details of his death, 
immediately previous to it, to that man on the boat in the unconscious 
hope that the man would recognize it as prophecy and do something to 
stop it--which the man may have been doing when he ran after Teddy just 
as Teddy was dying.  That adds a lot more tension and tragedy to the 
piece, but it seems to me that Salinger was Above such tactics and used 
the story of Teddy, as Scottie mentioned (without direct reference) as a 
sort of didactic personal forum for his own dogmas.  (Personally--and to 
satisfy ol' Jerome, who is ceaselessly looking to me for advice on his 
craft--I would have ended the story after Teddy wrote in his journal...I 
could have done without his sermon.  The dialogue is excellent and the 
characters eccentric and Salingerian enough to make a great story--a 
great story that was, in my opinion, soured with Teddy's pontifications.  
Anyway.)

Still, even without the deliberate tension, even if Teddy in his 
consciousness and unconsciousness truly awaited death indifferently, if 
not anxiously, I think there is an inherent tension that exists in 
Salinger's tales of Teddy and Seymour, and I'm sure Salinger was himself 
very aware of it.  The tension:  that Salinger is a very very very 
American writer, writing about very nonwestern philosophies of death and 
the way in one should live his life--it is the tension between American 
characters and their coming to terms with their Eastern religions, or 
rather Eastern characters coming to terms with their American 
environment.  In the example of Holden, the American is more predominant 
than the Buddhist, but there is enough Buddhism to cause conflict and 
confusion and ultimately despair--and in Seymour and Teddy, there is 
more Buddhism than American-ism, which creates a tension that could be 
seen as a Sophoclean (is that a word?) tragedy of man seeking to escape 
his destiny, or conversely as a more triumphant biblical tale, in the 
vein of Job and Samson and even Christ, where the hero wins his 
spiritual reward in the face of Earthly tragedy, confusion, and 
misdirection.

Wow, I'm on a roll--at least until Scottie and Jim get ahold of this 
post.  For tonight, however, I'll end here and bask in the warmth of my 
own, heh-heh, brilliance.  Whatever.  Good-night, folks.  Don't let the 
bedbug stains on the sheet lose the trial for you.  (Obscure "Pretty 
Mouth" reference...please excuse me, I think that's my cue.)

exit Brendan.

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