Subject: Re: Seymour at camp
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliaann@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Nov 08 2000 - 19:34:57 GMT
Sean wrote:
>
>Jesus, Seymour was one creepy kid at 7. Everything else I've read about
>him -- his diary selection in "Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters,"
>"Seymour: An Introduction," and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" -- made me
>like and sympathize with him. But, goddam, I sure don't like him as a
>seven-year-old.
You and everyone else in the world, apparently. I think, though, that
"Hapworth 16, 1924" goes a long way towards solving the mystery that is
Seymour.
And he's not the saint that Buddy made him out to be for all those years.
Now the crush on Mrs. Happy didn't strike me as very odd. In my, umm,
former camp counselor days, seven-year-old boys with crushes on female staff
members were a dime a dozen. And I remember one or two too-serious,
too-skinny, too-white little boys who liked to find spots under trees to sit
with their books.
And there's a lot of things in this story that are typical fodder for a
young boy's letter home to his parents: Dear Mom and Dad, I miss you, do
you miss me? I made a friend named Griffith, I hate it here. My counselor
is mean and the camp director's wife is pretty cute. If you won't come and
get me, will you at least send me some stuff? Love, Seymour.
It's the too-old voice and the thousands of obscure references that we don't
necessarily understand that make this story so inaccessible. It's not an
impossible persona, just unlikely. And I'm thinking that Seymour is
supposed to be extraordinary. Extraordinary, but flawed. People such as he
aren't supposed to be comfortable.
Regards,
Cecilia.
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