Re: Muriel
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Mon, 29 Nov 1999 19:44:35 -0500 (EST)
I like your reading of Muriel in Bananafish, and the conversation...but I am
really curious about how to take the "later" accretion of Buddy As Author.
What does this mean so far as our reading of Bananafish?
I mean, I read F and Z before I read ANY other Salinger. After F and Z I
read Catcher, then Nine Stories. So I had already developed some conception
of Who Seymour Was and That He Had Committed Suicide before I read
Bananafish. I'm not opposed to, say, importing everything else we know about
Muriel into Bananafish. What I like about your reading is that it is
consistent with the whole Glass canon while still being fair to the story by
itself.
But it's the Buddy/author thing I'm still stuck on :) How do we account for
the existence of the text if "Buddy" wrote it? How do we read it then?
Jim
In a message dated 11/29/99 5:57:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cbaader@my-Deja.com writes:
> 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.)