Re: So stand up and introduce yourself.
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Sun, 01 Nov 1998 12:21:01 -0700 (MST)
CAMILLE!
You've topped yourself! This paragraph is a gem...the ghost of holiness in
J.D. Salinger's longer stories is much more powerful to me and others (as
evidenced by our agreement on the powerful effects of considering shining
one's shoes for the fat lady at the ending of "Zooey') (and just for
the Shirley Beans record that's what all the formal caps and calling not
calling jds "mister" are about and just for Scottie!;) when it isn't
spelled out but there, understood, felt, and thought about
as a process of thinking an understanding, not a point that correlates to
a point in religious thinking.
In part this is why I like "Hapworth 16, l924" and think it may have been
overlooked...in that text J.D. Salinger may collapse writing and believing
in God more artfully than any story since "De Daumier-Smith's Blue
Period."
Thanks for making my Sunday, along with Wallace Stevens and your
insightful pixels, a better Sunday to believe in, will
(I'm still working on that capital "w" for my name boss...)
On Sat, 31 Oct 1998, Camille Scaysbrook wrote:
>
> On the contrary ... I think it was only the beginning. The difference is,
> it was Salinger's last overtly didactic expression (which is why I don't
> think it entirely works). In his subsequent works, the spirituality is kind
> of a ghost, never quite appearing anywhere but between the lines and
> infusing every word. I think that the Glass canon *is* Salinger's ultimate
> expression of his spirituality - strange as it may seem - it *is* his Jesus
> Prayer, which is why none of us are allowed to hear him chant it.
>
> Camille
> verona_beach@geocities.com
> @ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
> @ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>