Subject: RE: Jesus/fat lady and dying
From: Besiada, Jennifer (Jennifer.Besiada@nextel.com)
Date: Wed Nov 22 2000 - 14:00:47 GMT
Sean wrote:
>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.
Well-worded email, Sean. I had a dinner conversation last evening that
revolved around this very *opinion*, so your words were timely as well as
thoughtful.
I, too, initially bought into what seems to be the popular interpretation of
the Fat Lady. I am afraid, however, that my thoughts may have been a bit
more elitist: do it for the simple-minded who listen because they do not
know any better. Sympathize with the ignorant because they can not help it.
They, too, are Jesus, Franny. Just as much as the section men. Just as
much as Lane.
I have the impression that the Fat Lady may be just the person who put
Franny over the edge in the first place. Franny has been raised to tolerate
only an intellectual and spiritual level similar to her own - anything less
saddens her. Hence, her collegiate experiences pose a challenge for her
everyday. She perhaps senses herself becoming an elitist and is disgusted
by it.
Seymour seems self-actualized enough to at least realize that others lack
Glass qualities and that that is *ok*. But not one member of the Glass
family knows quite how to deal with it. How can one live amongst the less
knowledgeable and more mundane people and not *judge* them?
The cognitive dissonance maddens each and every one of them. Buddy hides
from the world and attempts to negate these feelings by offering up his
wisdom to ignorant young women. Sharing, helping, but numbing the
judgement. Zooey chooses to take on fictitious roles in his daily life which
allows him to dismiss his intellectual talents and mesh into a different
society. Franny has yet to find her mechanism and seeks help from Seymour,
happens upon the book. All are looking for an escape so they will no longer
be forced to *judge* others. It makes sense (maybe?) that Franny uses the
Jesus Prayer to occupy her mind -- to take over the elitist thoughts that
were maddening her in the first place.
>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.
Nice. Fun thought. It definitely makes sense that Franny seeks Seymour out
in one fashion or another and feels a bit of pressure to follow in his
footsteps. To what depth, I do not know for certain.
Just fishing for ideas (sorry, could not resist),
Jennifer
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