Re: Hand clap Zen koan
Musycian@aol.com
Fri, 06 Nov 1998 00:16:21 -0500 (EST)
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....