Re: Muriel

Cecilia A. Baader (cbaader@my-Deja.com)
Mon, 29 Nov 1999 14:55:36 -0800 

On Mon, 29 Nov 1999 13:23:26   AntiUtopia wrote:
>That's how you treat Bananafish -- you see it as a construct by Buddy, and 
>you take this view of the text to the limit.  My question is, Do we really 
>need to do that, and how justified are we in doing so?  Are the rules for 
>fiction Fictionally "written by" a fictional character really that different?
>
>Confused? :)
>
>Jim     
>
Well, yes.  That's precisely what I'm doing.  It's the only way, in my experience, to make any kind of sense out of APDFB.  Buddy is an unreliable narrator, so you need to look closer for clues to the Truth.

I'd agree that your average reader, experiencing the story for the first time, couldn't possibly get the same reading as someone who has read the entire Glass canon.  It is for that reason, when I push Salinger at my closest friends, that I give them _Nine Stories_ first.  (It is my blessing and my curse that certain phrases will conjure up the most vivid pictures in my imagination...  I can now see myself standing on a dingy street corner in an Australian trench coat, slyly showing unsuspecting tourists a selection of Salinger.)

Ahem.  Back to the topic.  So a reading of Muriel strictly from what we read in Bananafish is difficult, to be sure.  With so many of Salingers stories, we can do a superficial reading (e.g. Franny is Pregnant) or a deeper reading (e.g. Franny is in the midst of a spiritual crisis.)  Most can agree that in Bananafish, we have an adult daughter trying to assert her independence from an overwhelming mother.  

But what if we try a slightly different slant to what we're observing in the phone conversation?  Think of Muriel as an astute girl, offering her mother all the correct, expected responses in an anticipated conversation.  Her mother wants to come to Florida to save her, but here's the rub:  Muriel doesn't want her.  But she doesn't want to alienate her mother or make her so angry that she'll come anyway.  

So how do you keep that kind of person away?  By convincing her that she doesn't want to come.  The Crowd that you Like to See isn't here, Mother. They don't Dress Like You Do.  Seymour's Fine.  There wasn't any Trouble on the way down here, and if there is later, we have a Psychologist On Hand.  Seymour is so Funny.  Oh, and Mom?  Where's that book that's so Important to My Husband?  I need to have it.

It's different than what most people believe, I know.  And I'm not sure that I'd have that opinion if I didn't have the rest of the Glass stories, but it's the reading that feels most right to me.  I guess we could play that game that came up a few months ago, what if you were reading Bananafish for the first time?  And is it Will who likes to Xerox the APDFB with the last line blotted out and have his classes make up the last line of the story? What an excellent way to introduce this to a classroom full of unsuspecting undergrads.


Regards,
Cecilia.

(And might I mention, all good points, Jim?  What fun this is.)


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