Subject: Re: Jesus/fat lady and dying
LilPrnce5@aol.com
Date: Wed Nov 22 2000 - 01:48:28 GMT
Hi All,
I just wanted to throw my two cents in on the whole "jesus/fat lady" issue. I
had always thought of the fat lady as the embodiment of Christ. In the
Christian Tradition, one is taught to revere all humans and to treat them as
is they were Jesus because one never knows when He may come again. It is this
type of threat that turns me off from Christianity, the moral codes, the
threats. Maybe this is why Seymour and Salinger look elsewhere for a
spiritual calm. To quote the movie Dogma, "This religion inhibits man because
it imposes a father figure from 1000 years ago saying, 'Do it or I'll f*cking
spank you!'." I don't find the thought of discovering spirituality out of
guilt as very enlightening. Maybe that is why such radical Christianity is
practiced, such internal, personal, zealous Christianity.
On another wacky tangent, maybe the fat lady is not some abstract allusion to
Christ. Maybe the fat lady is Seymour himself. It always seemed in my reading
as if the Glass children lived up to the rules and the expectations of
Seymour and no one else. He was the guru, he was the guide. No one else could
possibly understand what it was like to be in that position. And so, Franny
takes up the Jesus prayer for Seymour, not because she knows what she is
doing, but because she feels it's the right thing to do. Someone had to pick
up where See-More left off; A Glass child had to fill the shoes.
Zooey refuses to accept responsibility, Buddy is hiding from the world, and
the rest of the children are either too wrapped up in their own lives to
fight the battle or dead. So, Franny feels this immense pressure to live up
to the one and only Seymour; Maybe that's why she has a nervous breakdown.
She is the last hope; how could she ever do it? The answer is by learning the
Jesus Prayer. So while Zooey is off pursuing his life as an actor, Franny
takes it upon herself to do it for the fat lady, to do it for Seymour.
Thanks for putting up with these odd ideas floating around in my head,
Sean
PS: Any insight on my suggestions would be great. Positve or Negative. Negate
my idea if it seems ridiculous, or help support it if you see what tiny
corner of light I am coming from.
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