Re: First Catcher memories?
Lagusta Pauline Yearwood (ly001f@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 15:14:58 -0500 (EST)
> Susan Pearson wrote:
>
> > I thought it was interesting what someone said about parts of JDS books
> > that they read over and over again. I do that all the time and I was
> > curious as to what parts other people read when they are feeling
> > depressed or happy or they just want to lie in bed a little longer on a
> > rainy Saturday with a good book. The part that I always turn to is
> > Seymour's diary in "Raise High..." Reading that bit is like a chat with
> > an old friend.
hmm, i've been thinking about this thread off and on a bit. it is a lovely
thing to think about, and it's made me feel very warm and happy
towards other bananafish, remembering that all of you share something so
special to me. do you remember when laura left the list because she
couldn't talk about salinger because it was too personal, too close to the
most sacred things in her heart? i really respected that, because i feel
like that a lot too. when this list is stupid, and people fight and i'm
reading posts that make me sigh and groan, i think of her and how it would
hurt her and how it hurts me that these people who on one hand share
something so incredibly sacred to me can be so annoying.
but, of course, that's life, that's the way it is with best friends,
lovers, family. but the thing that connects us is not life experiences,
not attraction or love, not blood, only one author. it's kind of amazing.
but this is getting long. my computer is now next to my window and all i
ever do anymore is look out the window at the green quads, the red brick
buildings, the bare winter trees, and ramble ramble ramble.
anyway, i have 2 favorite parts of salinger:
franny, when she's on the couch at the end of _F&Z_. that last paragraph
is so amazing...
and yep, that letter in _Zooey_. i actually used to have 2 copies of
_F&Z_; one to read out of the tub and an old falling apart, waterlogged
yard-sale copy i read almost every time i took a bath. i'd rest the book
on my knees, just like in the book, and read that letter pretending i was
zooey and buddy was my brother. sometimes my mother (quite a salinger
fan herself) would be outside, and since she knew what i was reading,
she'd urge me to take a "washrag." (weird family, mine..) then after I
got out of the tub, i'd always look right into my eyes when looking into
the mirror, because the eyes were "neutral territory, a no man's land in
a private war against narcissism he'd been fighting since he was six or
seven years old."
well, now it's 20 minutes later, and i've been sitting here reading
_F&Z_...
the thing is, i know this isn't what salinger is about -- copying what his
characters do -- and i have even a sneaking suspicion that he would frown
on it. but it brings me closer to the books. it's fun. it's human nature,
to copy what we love. maybe he wouldn't mind all that much.
lagusta