Subject: RE: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: Micaela (mbombard@middlebury.edu)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 15:19:03 EDT
Wow, I didn't realize that your real name was Midge Immington. I thought it
was because you liked Hapworth. Interesting.
-m
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org
[mailto:owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org]On Behalf Of midge immington
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 3:08 PM
To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
Subject: RE: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
Hi Bananafish!
I don't know if I completely understand the schism
between the Catcher readers and the Glass readers.
(Though Robbie sheds a whole lot of light on it. Nice
post.) I'm not sure if the chronology of reading--and
what age when--Salinger makes a difference. Thanks to
my parents, I started with Catcher and followed the
publication dates of the 4 books, and then went onto
the uncollected stories. In looking back from the
ancient age of 20, the stories seem a natural
progression, and my enjoyment of them doesn't exclude
others. (Recently, I reread Seymour an Introducation
and was awed. Ironically, the only major story I
don't really like is Hapworth 16, 1924--what with my
name and all. How weird to end up loving one's
parent's alltime favorite writer! At least I can't
stand their 60s music! I'm rambling but I guess I'm
trying to say that Salinger's work seems seamless to
me, especially when blending in the uncollected
stories. The later stories don't eclipse the earlier;
nor, as some critics say, was Salinger washed up after
1951. (And thanks, Will, for that vote of confidence
in the other thread!)
Bye!
Midge
--- "L. Manning Vines" <lmanningvines@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Micaela said:
> << That said, I must admit that most people I have
> met who strongly
> identify with Catcher, do not identify with F&Z, et
> al. Furthermore,
> those who do identify more with F&Z are often more
> intelligent
> (again, in reference to my own experience only). >>
>
> I identify with Franny and Zooey, although I must
> admit, I identified with
> them much more when I was in the middle of high
> school and was, by my own
> admission, rather angsty and self-absorbed. I still
> enjoy reading their
> stories but in a very different way. I am more
> interested in reading a book
> that can show me things about myself AND those
> sophomoric minds, as you
> called them. I can read and even enjoy a book about
> a few freaks, but --
> even if I'm a freak just like them -- the
> understanding that they are not at
> all like most people, that questions about them are
> largely irrelvent to
> most people and their condition, forces me to see a
> profoundly different
> weight in it.
>
> Franny and Zooey are both beautiful. And, of
> course, geniuses. Her eyes
> are set slightly wider apart than his, as a sister's
> eyes should be. He has
> the uncanny ability to remember, almost verbatim,
> every thing he has ever
> read. I'm paraphrasing the book, but my point is
> that these people are
> preposterous idealizations. They are fantasies.
> The freakish among us
> might see something of ourselves in them, but in
> some way they do not --
> indeed cannot -- exist.
>
> I like the stories. I enjoy reading them. I'll
> even say that I've learned
> things from them. But literature has the capacity
> to show us things about
> our common humanity -- I think that Holden does
> this, and that Zooey does
> not. This is not to say that Zooey is worthless as
> a character or a story.
> But to my estimation, the worth he and his story
> have is not in the same
> ballpark as Holden and his.
>
> -robbie
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