Re: Seymour's Death -- "Et tu, Muriel?"
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 18 Nov 1998 17:27:28 -0500 (EST)
Pasha--interesting post.
The game me, Matt and, eh, various others were playing was, "How would we
read Bananafish if we were coming to it for the first time--without ever
having read anything about Seymour?" I had a hard time playing that game
because I read Franny and Zooey before I read Bananafish--biasing my
reading of Bananafish. But to view the discussion in light of all of the
Glass Family Canon is to break the rules of the game :) I did that
myself a little bit, of course, it's kind of inescapable.
But try to understand Seymour only by reading Bananafish. What would
your impressions of him be? Suppose that was the Only Salinger you'd
ever read? What would you think of Seymour then? Do you think he's
capable of killing Muriel, and maybe thought about it before shooting
himself?
I have to disagree with your judgment of the child Seymour spent time
with, and his impression of her. DRAGGING BACK IN ALL the Glass
canon--which I can do at this point since you did to make Your point
:)--remember Seymour was a guru to six children. He was spiritual head
of the Glass household. I think he was removed from that comfortable
environment and stuck in a world of selfish adults. Selfish children are
ok. We expect them to be. But we hope adults outgrow that a little. We
hope :)
Matt--
Yeah, I actually thought BOTH Muriel and her mother were vacuous. Very
believable characters, actually :) I thought Muriel's mother was vacuous
and influenced by psychoanalysis, while Muriel herself was Pure Vacuity.
The biggest shock to me, in my first read of Bananafish, was that
Seymour's suicide actually lent some credibility to Muriel's mother,
believe it or not--I had that low an impression of her :)
I confess some personal biases against Psychology as a discpline (esp
Freudian psychoanalysis) and some personal biases for women in general in
their estimate of the men they love. Even vacant, stupid women. So long
as they have enough self respect to not tolerate abuse.
Jim
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