Re: Hand clap Zen koan

Erin McLaughlin (erinseyes@hotmail.com)
Mon, 02 Nov 1998 19:26:24 -0800 (PST)

All this deconstructionism is bringing me back to the good old literary 
debate about whether or not we can truly determine the intent of an 
author. Personally, I hate to think that Salinger posed that koan and 
then attempted to throw us clue-like answers in his text. It seems cheap 
to me. 

It just makes me wonder about the merits of structuralist readings of 
texts...I mean, how do we bananafish-listers feel about trying to read 
Salinger's works by guessing his intent? I read a lot of Derrida 
recently (despite my ill-constucted, effortless sentences) and seemed to 
see the merit in his view, but I also just heard a really interesting 
lecture on the rewards of structual interpretation. 

Just wondering what you internet-heads think.

Erin 

----Original Message Follows----
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 12:35:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Drnick19@aol.com
Subject: Re: Hand clap Zen koan
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
Reply-to: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu

The action described in the Zen koan is shown in the first story, when
Seymour's wife, while drying her freshly-polished nails, passes her hand 
back
and forth in the air, much like one hand clapping.  It could be an 
example of
Salinger's humor showing through, presenting the Zen action in the most
spiritually devoid character in the story.

Charles Cohen


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