At 18:32 11/19/98 +0000, helena kim wrote: >i am continuously amazed at the contempt people have for muriel. and >what's wrong with being miss spiritual tramp? i certainly don't think >seymour meant it in the patronising dismissive way its generally been >taken here. she isn't any more spiritaully befuddled and slutty >than franny and her weird zen/ jesus/ francis of assissi combinations. > >muriel is fah-bulous, dah-link. she's not as annoying tragic as say jane >or franny, nor does she ever come accross as the tantrum-throwing >worship-me sally type. > >i like her. i don't expect you all to do the same, but i wanted you all >to know that there's someone out here who reads muriel's character >favourably. OK, OK, you're certainly just as entitled to your views as we are. BUT MURIEL NO WORSE THAN FRANNY? (A few moments elapse while paramedics restart my heart and lungs.) At least Franny is befuddled because she honestly cares about spiritualism, and is confused only because she has gathered too much information at one time! Muriel doesn't even TRY to think spiritually at all, and actually GIGGLES at being called a "Spiritual Tramp". It calls to mind Franklin's bitter satire of Ginnie Mannox in Eskimos; it seems like Muriel thinks being called a tramp is "just so CUTE". YUCK! Sorry if I seem a little hostile, but Franny is one of my favorite characters (if not the favorite) and I can't stand Muriel. But I would agree that she fits into the same league as Sally Hayes, another annoying little girl in a late-teen body. <contented sigh> OK, I've vented now, carry on :) --Pasha ________________________________________________________ G.H.G.A.Paterson (804)662-3737 gpaterso@richmond.edu ________________________________________________________