Subject: Re: only Dr Scholl knows for sure
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Mon May 06 2002 - 09:01:31 EDT
Phew, just finished wiping the crap off my face from our last exchange.
Glad you didn't throw any more this time. It tastes pretty good, but
nothing goes down quite so well as media filtered crap.
Anyway, if we were to try to talk about the foot as a symbol, the best way
to do it would probably be by looking across all references to feet in
Salinger's fiction and see if they all accumulate into something. There'd
still be no guarantee that the sum impression we get would be relevant to
any individual reference, but at least we'd have a good starting point.
I think a podiatrist is a foot doctor, but wouldn't be surprised if
chiropodist was a word Buddy coined that related to feet somehow
(PODiatrist. chiroPODist)...if not indeed a real profession.
Jim
Jive Monkey wrote:
>
> I'm not a big fan of symbolism either, to be honest. It does require more
> than a little faith to believe it all, and it just doesn't strike me as
> Dad's style. For me, I've always thought Seymour had a thing for feet.
> They're brought up just a little too often as far as I'm concerned. Buddy
> even went so far as to tell Mrs. Sisburn and Muriel's Matron of Honor that
> Seymour was "a chiropodist" before he was drafted (by all means correct me
> if I'm wrong, but a chiropodist is a foot doctor, no?). I used to have a
> head full of feet references in my head, but that was long ago and far away.
> Oh well, there's always tomorrow.
>
> love,
> andy
>
> From: "LR Pearson, Arts 99" <lp9616@bristol.ac.uk>
> Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> To: Bananafish <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
> Subject: Feet
> Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 16:46:18 +0100
>
> Somebody asked again recently about the significance of feet in
> 'Bananafish' and I thought I'd have a search through the archives for
> the postI made on Rilke. Here it is:
>
> "I have been reading Rilke's "Stories of God" and came across this
> interesting passage. It follows an invitation to the charater to join a
> literary society.
>
> '"Picture to yourself," I explained with the necessary
> seriousness, "Since that time hardly a moment has passed during which I
> have not been resigning from some society or other, and yet there are
> still societies which, so to speak, contain me."
> The young man looked, first with amazement and then with a kind
> of respectful pity, AT MY FEET [capitalisation my own]. He must have
> seen in them confirmation of my continuous withdrawals, for he nodded
> understandingly.'"
>
> I think this is quite significant seeing Salinger's interest in Rilke.
>
> Incidentally, while surfing the archives, I came across the posts that
> were made while I was off-list in the summer and realised that the
> radio programme I was on was the one with Matthew Dodd which wasted
> Will's time by not using his contribution. I haven't actually managed
> to hear it yet as I was overseas at the time it was aired and didn't
> manage to get a tape. They have just sent me one, after much reminding.
> I can't say I'm that enthusiastic about hearing it now, though, since
> responses on the list seemed to be pretty negative. I did have an
> inkling it might not be very insightful, since they seemed a lot more
> interested in knowing what I thought Holden looked like (not something
> I have strong feelings about, I'm not a very visual person) than what I
> thought about the book and Salinger in general.
>
> Ah well,
>
> love Lucy-Ruth
> ----------------------
> LR Pearson, Arts 99
> lp9616@bristol.ac.uk
>
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