RE: Seymour, a ???
Sean Draine (seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com)
Fri, 14 May 1999 13:51:18 -0700
My comments are really directed at a piece of literature rather than the
psychology of grieving. With S:AI, did Salinger really set out to tell the
story of a tortured lonely bachelor clinging to the idea of his dead brother
as Man of the Millenium? I strongly doubt it, but someone please chime in if
I'm wrong. I suspect that if that was his motive, he would have written a
much better story.
You can't help but read the story with the sense that Salinger is standing
behind you, peering over your shoulder. The Salinger I sensed was right
there in the first person with Buddy, seeing Seymour just as Buddy sees him,
and seeing Buddy just as Buddy sees himself. Salinger has produced some
characters, such as the cuckhold in _Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes_, who
are left 'out of the loop', so to speak, that exists between the author and
the careful reader. Buddy is not such a character. With S:AI, I sensed a
very tight relationship between Salinger and Buddy, and an implicit offer to
the reader to join them. Not a very tempting offer, in my opinion.
Salinger sages of the list, am I smoking pot here, or what?
-Sean
P.S. I don't think Salinger has lost his touch with writing. Some of the
vignettes, such Buddy racing down the street for ice cream, are great. He
just seems, unfortunately, to have taken up some sort of unfortunate, Holy
agenda.
-----Original Message-----
From: Thor Cameron [mailto:my_colours@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 11:51 PM
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
Subject: Re: Seymour, a ???
After my brother died, the following years turned this depressed
teenager-turned-suicide into a legend-cum-saint. It happens. For some
people, it IS healthy.
Thor
>I just reread _Seymour: an Introduction_ the other night and am struggling
>to make any sense of this rambling, tangled thicket of prose. Sadly, the
>most honest reading I can give it is this: It's about an isolated,
>middle-aged man with an altogether unhealthy and delusional conviction that
>his dead brother is the messiah.
>
>'Unhealthy' seems hardly debatable, given all of the sweating, apologizing,
>second-guessing, and general fatique that strangles the book. 'Delusional',
>because there is apparently nothing, besides Buddy's pathetic pleading (and
>perhaps Salinger's Reputation), to compel us to believe him. Oh sure, there
>is some mention of Seymour's poetry, which Buddy clearly holds in very high
>regard, but no poem actually makes an appearance anywhere. There is also
>the
>occassional illustrative anecdote, such as when Seymour advise's Buddy that
>he'd have more luck with the marbles if he stopped aiming them. Oh, come
>on,
>this is the same advice given by Ben Kanobi when he groaned, "Use the
>Force,
>Luke." Surely, Buddy would not have us read anything profound into the
>writings of George Lucas. Or?
>
>To the extent that there are autobiographical strains in this story (and
>you'd have to be reading it from 50 feet away to miss them), the whole
>tortured effort becomes sadder still.
>
>-Sean
>
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