In a message dated 98-11-05 03:22:31 EST, you write: << Well, um ... yes. Isn't that the point though? I think you're taking this too literally. Salinger obviously put the koan at the beginning of his collection for *some* reason - to set the mood or mindset that we are intended to read the stories in. Likewise, I doubt that absolutely no thought was put into the sequencing of the book - thus it is no coincidence that Bananafish and Teddy bookend the collection. That's not to say that the collection has anything tangible to do with Zen (other than Teddy of course) but like I said before, it's in there, in between every line. The miraculous one hands clapping are a *very* sly little allusion to this. >> Well yeah there are definitely Zen references in the other stories. Not jsut subtle ones. But I don't think we can exactly say something like "oh Salinger OBVIOUSLY put the koan there bcause..." etc....