Re: Hapworth

James J Rovira (jrovira@juno.com)
Mon, 24 May 1999 17:38:14 -0400 (EDT)

Yes, that's true.  But my beef about Hapworth was twofold --

one, Salinger created this unbelievably smart seven year old.  I wouldn't
have believed that about Mill except that I accept the sources as
trustworthy.  The point is that people like this are extreme rarities.

two, that Salinger didn't seem to give a nod to the unbelievability of
this kid's letter early on.  That this natural reaction on the part of
the reader wasn't addressed.  

But there have been comments about other clues expressing a childish
intelligence being found in Hapworth -- that would be a redeeming
characteristic, I think.

Jim

On Sat, 22 May 1999 01:28:02 -0400 (EDT) JDHadden@aol.com writes:
>As to the question of whether a child of Seymour's age could be as 
>"smart" as 
>he seems to be...  John Stuart Mill had mastered Greek as well as 
>Plato by 
>age 7, so one would be safe in assuming he was also quite proficient 
>at 
>English.  Just an example...
>And I don't think a larger brain means smarter, necessarily...  There 
>have 
>been cases where people have lost half of their brains and still 
>reasoned on 
>a higher level than some individuals with larger whole brains.  I 
>guess it 
>all depends on how you define "Smarter".  I would define it by 
>content, not 
>capacity.
>
>JD Hadden
>

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