Re: Bananafish (the story) help


Subject: Re: Bananafish (the story) help
From: Pasha Paterson (gpaterso@richmond.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 09 2000 - 15:17:16 GMT


I know, I know, don't go lecturing me on consistency :)

Rob Riss wrote:

> One of the things that I wonder about is the woman looking at his feet in
> the elevator. Since Seymour has this supposed skin disorder from touching
> people, or whatever you'd like to call it, does he have any other scars on
> his feet? Possibly from Sybil?

Maybe he does have some sort of horrific rash or scarring on his feet. Some
people might answer that Seymour's holy feet actually levitate a few millimeters
above the filth of the lowly earth, buoyed up by the divinity of his supreme
innocence. Fat chance. I think he's just being paranoid because the woman
would rather look at the floor than look at him. She doesn't possess the sort
of childlike desire to say hello and get to know everyone she encounters.
Instead, she tries to be "polite" and not look at Seymour at all, which is, of
course, more offensive to him than unsolicited conversation might have been to
any typical give-me-my-6-yards-of-space American tourist. She is uncomfortable
talking to strangers, and he is uncomfortable with strangers who don't talk to
him.

It's hard to tell whether this episode in the elevator is what pushes Seymour
over the edge. He had probably been contemplating suicide for some time; why
else would he be carrying around the Ortgies automatic? We were never meant to
"get" this story. It, like "Teddy", is more like a 20th century prose koan than
a traditional "short story." It might even be compared (though on a very loose
basis) to the cryptic vignettes of Chuang-Tzu. Just read it, enjoy it, glean
whatever meanings you can from it, then find some place like this to share the
struggle.

--
"People in Glass houses shouldn't vacation in Florida, go on quiz shows, or read
Russian books about religion.  Then there's something about stones, too." 
--
Pasha Paterson
gpaterso@richmond.edu
http://141.166.230.120/
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