Re: Why's the Laughing Man live in Tibet?


Subject: Re: Why's the Laughing Man live in Tibet?
From: Jive Monkey (monkey_jive@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri May 18 2001 - 23:20:23 GMT


My Two Cents (because I know it's not worth even that much)-

I've always thought that the Laughing Man lived in Tibet because it was a
far-off, exotic land, near Paris.

Ringo

p.s. I had a part in a movie which some friends and I made, during high
school, called "Justice Man." I played the part of "Louis," Justice Man's
French butler, who goes undercover as "The Laughing Boy" to infiltrate the
bad guys hideout (I've forgotten their names, God strike me down). My cover
was blown and my character met an untimely death. His downfall, you ask?
Well, it seems that the "real" Laughing Boy NEVER laughed, but Louis'
version did. Now, it would seem obvious that, given the topic at hand and
the knowledge of my taste for dad's work, that this an attempt on my part to
honor the old man. However, at the time, neither I nor any of the others
who worked on the script for that movie, to my knowledge, had ever read
anything by jds or la farge.

From: "Zack Wyatt" <zwyatt@stanford.edu>
Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
To: <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Subject: Why's the Laughing Man live in Tibet?
Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 16:00:28 -0700

Why does the Laughing Man live in Tibet?

The first time I read "The Laughing Man" I liked it. The second time I
tried to figure it out. Why does he live in Tibet? And why is there a
eurasian girl? Why why why...? Whenever I read "The Laughing Man" I figured
there had to be some special reason behind each one of these little details.

Well...with the help of a few people I think I've figured out some of the
answers to those 'why' questions -- and more importantly...what the answers
mean for the story as a whole. But before I begin writing the paper about
the research and findings (for my freshman writing class) I wanted to bounce
the ideas off all the more experienced Salinger scholars on this list.

  - Establishing LAUGHING BOY's possible influence on "The Laughing Man"
LAUGHING BOY was written by Oliver La Farge in 1929. It won the pulitzer
prize over Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS. La Farge published short stories
in the Sat Even Post, Ladies H. J., Harpers, and the New Yorker during the
30s and early 40s. Salinger published his first story in March 1940 for
Story. That same month La Farge published a story in the New Yorker. We
all know Salinger strived for the New Yorker; there's a good chance he read
the stories there so he could learn what those authors were doing. Salinger
was accepted to the New Yorker in Nov of '41 but with the war going his
story didn't get printed. La Farge had another article printed in Dec of
'42. Although they were never published in the same magazine in the same
month...they both wrote for the same ones over several years. Certainly
there's a chance Salinger read him.

Further: The New Yorker published "The Laughing Man" in March of '49. He
had been discussing the work with the New Yorker in Jan of '49. I don't
know exactly when he wrote it -- but likely several months before hand --
sometime in mid to late '48, likely. This is completely a stretch, but
worth noting: A several page multi-pictured article by Oliver La Farge
(about Native Americans in the war) appeared in the New York Times Magazine
in June of '48 and included a small biographical note about the author,
noting his Pulitzer prize winning LAUGHING BOY. Two weeks later a letter to
the editor praising the article led the N.Y. Times Mag to include a potrait
of La Farge. It's possibly completely coincidental -- but perhaps Salinger
was reminded of LAUGHING BOY by the LaFarge articles in this magazine.

I completely understand if you're skeptical about Salinger reading La Farge
based on the above times and dates and publications. However, after reading
LAUGHING BOY and "The Laughing Man" -- its clear in my mind that Salinger
certainly used the story as inspiration for his. Whether he got it from the
manner above or not...who knows?

Cecilia Baader noted the possible/likely influence of LAUGHING BOY on "The
Laughing Man" in January of this year. She also provided an excellent plot
summary. If you're going to read along with my interpretations, please
check out and read her email:
http://www.roughdraft.org/JDS/JDS.ocon.jan01/0058.html

I have to go now...but will be back tomorrow or late late tonight to finish
this email and explain how I think Salinger used the two stories...and more
importantly...how he changed them (and what it all means). In the meantime:
go read Cecilia's summary (and LAUGHING BOY if you have time).

        - Zack

p.s. I'll answer why "The Laughing Man" lives in Tibet before I go.

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