Re: if he's out there
Baader, Cecilia (cbaader@casecorp.com)
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 13:11:07 -0600
Hello, all...
I'm one of those "lurkers" that has been discussed here lately, and I
suppose that now is as good a time as any to introduce myself. My name is
Cecilia Baader, from Chicago, and unlike many other posters to the list, I
don't have a long string of degrees after my name... I'm just a former
English major who can't seem to give up the need to read and analyze
everything that she comes across. So now that my job completely precludes
that type of activity, I read the posts and silently agree and disagree in
my little open-walled cubicle.
That said, Rick's post reminded me of a discussion that I've had a number of
times with a friend of mine, who is also hopelessly obsessed with the old
man's work. That is, is Mrs. Glass really fat, like her younger children
seem to believe? Or is this another question of questioning who is telling
the story? Again, we have Zooey Glass, a young, handsome and
(second)-favorite son, calling his mother "Fatty." The self-same beauty who
took the town by storm with her fabulous legs two decades before? Is she
truly a hausfrau who has let herself go?
I like to think, no. We're again having to interpret through the subjective
view of the Glass children. There's so much about what is not said about
Bessie and Les. We can only decide based upon what is told to us by others,
which is then recounted through a second filter, Buddy. Buddy himself says
that he was retelling the story as told to him by the three principles. And
he states that he mentions things that he is sure that one or another of
them would hate to see in print, so we have the story as Bessie, Zooey, and
Franny have chosen to relate to Buddy, and then how Buddy chooses to relate
it to us. How fun.
But then again, I could be completely wrong. She could really be a frumpy
old lady, wandering around an apartment in an ancient kimono.
Regards,
Cecilia Baader
-----Original Message-----
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 02:31:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Pierrot65@aol.com
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
Subject: Re: if he's out there
Message-ID: <19a3958d.36e7716b@aol.com>
I love the part in Zooey (or is it Franny?) where Zooey is in the John or
john
and he calls his mom "Fatso." For some reason that slays me, it really does.
But then my f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s aren't squared, maybe.
rick