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).
Jim

Yea on the Teddy twist on Gen 2 but apples are more like mental furniture,
if we don't spring clean they become part of the house. Seymour had the
cards stacked and a Rilke wind blew in. Does it take a certain kind of
stooping to start stacking the cards again? Buddy isn't as good a card
stacker as Seymour so he is not as perturbed with stooping to re-stack. His
stooping changes his view so he is not quite the same observer as Seymour.
Daniel

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.
Jim

Rilke's mental furniture 'shocked' Seymour and I am not sure shock is the
word either. He had a nice sitting room but Rilke had a courtyard with
living plants, birds, and fish swimming in the fountain. If you were
Seymour where would you start? Could you part with all your unpacked
library? Buddy though, had second hand furniture so he saw things
differently. Did he even know the German Poet?
Daniel

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

You expect me to re-read all of that so soon? Damm, I am no scholar Jim. I
am one of those annoying guys talking too loud in the coffee shop and I
don't even drink coffee.
Daniel
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Received on Thu May 15 16:05:39 2003