RE: A Half Baked Theory


Subject: RE: A Half Baked Theory
From: Amber Raley (araley@agnesscott.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 17 2000 - 12:35:34 GMT


 An interesting theory indeed. I have a few thoughts added below. As for my
presentation it really wasn't much (blush) mostly an outline of the events
of the book and how these experiences are mystical. I don't really have
anything written out, but I could possibly attempt something. I tend to do
better when speaking my mind rather than reading it, so I rarely prepare
notes for speaches. The most asked question from the class was why the
pilgrim chose this path/prayer. Any answers? I think the path chose him more
than he chose it, the scripture "pray without ceasing" seemed to almost
haunt him. So for him the prayer was just answering what seemed to him the
insistance that he find a way to pray without ceasing. This is very much
like the young Tarwater character in Flannery O'Connor's story The Violent
Bear It Away. He is driven by the undeniable urge to baptize, even as he
drowns a boy. This marriage of violence and salvation or the necessity of
violence to shock the senses and facilitate relivation is also evident at
the conclusion of the novel. It is only after Tarwater is raped that he
opens his eyes and assumes the role of the prophet. Perhaps it is something
simular that causes the young Zen monks to awake out of their daily stupor
and experience a satori.
One other story that came to mind with your statement that the women in
Seymour's life serve as destractions to his spiritual advancement is a
Daoist/Taoist tale of a woodworker. In order for the true nature of the
object he is forming, a bell stand, to come through he first takes himself
out of the equation. The woodworker fasts so that he forgets the rewards and
recognition that come from his laybor, and eventually he forgets that he
even has arms and legs. In this way he himself does not interfere with the
pure act of letting the bell stand emerge from the wood. Just a few
thoughts.

Amber

-----Original Message-----
From: Cecilia Baader
To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
Sent: 11/17/2000 2:34 AM
Subject: A Half Baked Theory

A Half Baked Theory, or the connection of Zen, Charlotte, Teddy & German

pistols.

******

One of the things that has always puzzled me about the Seymour myth is
why
he threw that rock at Charlotte. That, and his method of suicide, just
don't fit the rest of what we know about Seymour.

Buddy mentions in "Seymour: an Introduction" that, when he wrote
"Teddy",
more than one family member recognized Seymour in his description of
Teddy's
eyes. So it follows that we can perhaps make other connections to
Seymour
as well. Sure, Teddy is not Seymour, but perhaps Buddy uses Teddy to
explain a lot of Seymour. "'I met a lady, and I sort of stopped
meditating'
(188)" Teddy says, and it's not unlike Seymour's experience of meeting
Muriel.

So women can be detrimental to peace of mind. (Ha. Serves you right,
fellas.) The point is that if something takes your mind off of what you

need to do, Teddy believes that you need to get rid of it: "'Only
because
he's quite spiritual, and he's teaching a lot of stuff right now that
isn't
very good for him if he wants to make any real spiritual advancement.
It
stimulates him too much'" (195). Give up that which you love if it gets
in
the way of whatever you need to accomplish in this lifetime. Not as
easy as
it sounds, but then Seymour isn't one of your normal folks.

Dying is not such a tragedy, so far as Teddy is concerned:
"'All you do is get the heck out of your body when you die. My gosh,
everybody's done it thousands and thousands of times. Just because they

don't remember it doesn't mean they haven't done it' . . . 'What would
be so
tragic about it, though? What's there to be afraid of, I mean? I'd just
be
doing what I was supposed to do'" (193). So if you're done with whatever
you
need to do in this life, you get out. Maybe you know that your little
sister is going to push you into a swimming pool and you walk down to
the
pool deck and let her do it. Or maybe you just know that you're going
to
bring a gun with you on vacation in Florida.

(I'd just like to note, in a brief aside, that just typing 'Florida'
irks me
a little right now.)

It's been a year since I've read his book, but Eberhard Alsen mentions
in
his discussion of Zen Buddhism that there a principle that sometimes a
person needs to experience pain in order for understanding to occur.
I've
read more than one koan where the teacher whacks the student a good one
and
suddenly the student understands. (Anyone willing to fill in the blanks

here for me as to why?)

So the violence of the rock and the violence of the death? Perhaps
Seymour
has decided that each action is totally necessary in order to advance.
Maybe this is the life that Buddy writes into Teddy's past, where he met
a
lady and just stopped meditating. Perhaps it's a flaw in Seymour's
makeup,
and to counteract it the first time, he heaved a stone at the object of
his
affection. Maybe the second time required a little more drastic
measure.

And maybe the violence of the death, in spiritual terms, was something
that
Seymour the teacher decided was necessary not only for him to learn
separation from that which he found "too stimulating" but also to
provide a
slap in the face for certain students who needed to learn a lesson.

So perhaps that's it. Perhaps Seymour decided that he'd learned all he
needed to learn and that it was time to move on. And the violent method
of
doing so is simply because certain people needed to learn something
Important.

So Seymour the teacher used his death as another lesson. Cripes. I'm
annoyed. I think I hate this theory, but it makes a horrific kind of
sense.

Regards,
Cecilia.
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