Re: Smart kids, (was Hapworth)
James J Rovira (jrovira@juno.com)
Mon, 24 May 1999 17:38:15 -0400 (EDT)
I think that's an accurate depiction of Salinger's view of wisdom, but
that's not the beef people seem to have had with Hapworth. An
insightful, genuninely Wise Child isn't a problem with me, especially if
said child works within a child's parameters. But what we see here is a
child with a remarkable command of the English language. This in itself
may not be damning to a work, but some explanation of it would have given
the reader some reason to suspend disbelief early on and, at least,
helped me out a bit :)
Jim
>Well, I guess that drives a stake between your opinion on intelligence
>and
>mine (and MW's). If intelligence is how many dates of famous battles
>you
>can recite off by heart, how many times tables you can regurgitate,
>how
>many A's you can get on your report card - then obviously the person
>who
>has lived longer has the more information at his or her disposal.
>However,
>true wisdom - that is, the state of being Wise (heck, `It's a Wise
>Child'!)
>is something that I believe certain people are born with, an
>intangible
>which cannot be eroded or changed from birth but just covered or
>uncovered.
>I think this is the sort of intelligence Salinger intended us to
>believe
>Seymour has - however, the innate difficulty in portraying such a hazy
>value seems to have led him to plump for a more `worldly' wiseness for
>Seymour.
>
>Camille
>verona_beach@geocities.com
>@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
>@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>
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