Hey, Dan. Welcome to the list! > I suppose I am one of the newest members of this list, so I > thought I would introduce myself. My name is Dan Mahanty, I currently > attend George Mason University, and as I assume for many of you, my > addiction to Salinger (and, more specifically, the Glass family)is a > purely self-indulgent attempt to justify my typically 20-something > neurotic and occasionally pretentious behavior. That's how it often starts. Don't worry; it will eventually mutate into something more socially acceptable and then you will know you have crossed to the other side. > To begin with, I am intrigued with a passage in "Bananafish" which > alludes to a tattoo Seymour hides from the general public. Would any of > you know any more specific information, or of any other allusion in other > works? (I swear, I've looked up and down "Franny and Zooey", but to no > avail.) I've often thought of it as a gentle dementia, of the sort Sgt. X might have imagined in "Esme." Anyone else come across a clue about this, or come up with a creative interpretation? "Bananafish" seems like such a straightforward story, but it has the quality of an onion. Just one thin layer atop another, and another.... --tim o'connor