Re: a little JDS

I think the "apple bin" here represents "discursive reason" of sorts. I
think he's making reference to Teddy calling us all a bunch of "apple
eaters," who misunderstands the tree in Genesis 2 to be the tree of
"knowledge" (in a rational sense) rather than the "knowledge of good and
evil" (in a moral sense).

Rilke then was an irrationalist influence on Seymour, according to
Daniel, and once Seymour had succumbed to it he couldn't stand the
situation. He was unable to pick the apples up again (couldn't recover
reason), but couldn't stand to watch them all roll away (couldn't live
without it), so he killed himself. Buddy, on the other hand, has no
problem losing his apples.

Sounds plausible. It'd be really interesting to see Daniel support his
ideas with evidence from the stories rather than just make assertions --
that'd be a good discussion. I think it'd be tough because Rilke is
praised but not really interacted with much, and it's not that clear to
me that Rilke would be that strong an influence toward irrationality --
but you never know what's there till you look or have been shown.

Jim

Kim Johnson wrote:

>daniel, i don't exactly understand what is meant by
>rilke kicking out the leg of seymour's apple bin.
>that rilke , or seymour's engagement with r.'s work,
>contributed to seymour committing suicide? (that r.
>was on s.'s mind because of the question to muriel?)
>
>please amplify, and then i perhaps can dither on about
>rilke and/or seymour....
>
>kim
>
>
>--- Yocum Daniel GS 21 CES/CEOE
><daniel.yocum@Peterson.af.mil> wrote:
>
>
>>Our posts intersect and we stand at the crossroads,
>>maybe we can do some
>>soul business. The mystsic Rilke (that German Poet
>>more precisly) kicked
>>the leg out from Seymour's apple bin and apples fell
>>every which way. Even
>>Seymour's 'extrodinaireness' didn't equip him with
>>picking them all back up
>>but he couldn't just stand there and watch them all
>>roll away either. Buddy
>>on the other hand leaves a trail of lost apples
>>everywhere he goes.
>>Hopefully none of the rest of the Glasses will slip
>>on the peels. Kafka on
>>the other hand reveled in scattered apples and
>>particularly bruised
>>scattered apples with worms. That last one was for
>>you John O.
>>Daniel
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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Received on Thu May 15 12:46:35 2003