Subject: Re: Walt's hand in "Uncle Wiggly" (was Re: Honeymoon?)
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliaann@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Oct 20 2000 - 02:13:32 GMT
"Tim O'Connor" <oconnort@nyu.edu> wrote:
>...but I will say this about Cecilia's comment: If
>Ramona MIGHT be Walt's daughter, and if Eloise's friend knows about the
>fatherhood, then this could well be a classically ironic sentence,
>saying how much Ramona looks like Lew when the friend knows Lew is not
>the actual father.
That's precisely what I was trying to say, though you, as usual, said it
much better. You ought to be a writer or something.
>But I think this is much, too much, a stretch of the imagination, and
>far too intricate for magazine fiction of the time.
Well, but I'm going to throw one of your own ideas right back at you, Tim.
Ahem. In a long ago archived list posting, you mentioned that in _A
Moveable Feast_, Hemingway tells us how he's discovered the secret to
writing. What is important is not what happens within the story, it is what
has happened without: "The story was about coming back from the war but
there was no mention of the war in it."
We know that Salinger subscribes to this method-- just look at the mass of
holes that is "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". We, as readers need to fill
in the blanks. So why wouldn't he do something like that? What if he's
built this whole story based on a truth that is never mentioned?
The exact passage in question reads:
Mary Jane extended her pack of cigarettes, saying "Oh, I'm dying
to see her. Who does she look like now?"
Eloise struck a light. "Akim Tamiroff."
"No, seriously."
"Lew. She looks like Lew. When his mother comes over, the three
of them look like triplets." (24)
So imagine you're Mary Jane, and you've been quizzing your best friend on
the details of her life, worried about her. Does your kid look like
somebody she shouldn't? she's maybe asking. No, Eloise is perhaps saying.
She might as well be one of them.
It's not impossible. I'm not saying that it's probable, I'm just saying
that it's not impossible. I just reread the story with that interpretation
in mind, and it puts a whole different spin on everything that's said.
Don't forget that Eloise leaves college because she was caught in an
elevator with a G.I. She's not exactly pure as the driven snow when she's
dating Walt, even if she was wearing her bad Idaho clothes.
I'd prefer to believe in the beautiful love that appears to be depicted, but
I'm not sure if that's because I'm a silly romantic or if that's because
it's the truth. So...?
Regards,
Cecilia.
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