Subject: Re: Franny Bashing
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 19 2001 - 13:58:13 GMT
> Zooey just says christ because Franny has been hung up on the Jesus prayer,
> as far as Salinger is concerned he could have said buddha or Krishna or
> whatever else. This is not a christian teaching so we can't discuss
> christian interpretation.
>
I think it's a mistake to say there's no parallel to this in Christian
teaching. Matthew 26 relates Christ's teaching about the last judgment. He
said that if you feed someone in need, or visit someone in prison, then
it's like doing it for him (the qualifications were a bit more specific in
the text but I don't have it with me now). "Whatever you do to the least
of my brothers, you've done for me." So it's possible to understand
actions toward a needy person as an action done for Christ within Christian
thought, without reference to the monism that you see in the Vedas and
related literature...
> heh...that's a pretty interesting thesis...I could almost buy it. Do you
> have any
> references?-----------------------------------------------------------
>
> My mother is the only one I would trust as a reference. I'll send her number
> by private e mail. : )
>
Good :) I take it she knows Salinger and what he was thinking while
writing F&Z? :)
> I see more of a mood swing in Catcher than a change in
> thinking...where in F&Z I see a mood swing (and a wider one at that) along
> with a specific way of seeing the world differently...
> Jim--------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't know, in Catcher he cries as it rains hard on him, in F&Z Franny
> goes to sleep. Of course sleep does have a special meaning in Salinger "You
> take a really sleepy man and..." The specific "dogmatic" way of seeing the
> world differently in F&Z is that we are all christ, just an idea that says
> almost nothing.
>
> Paul
Nah, I don't think the idea means nothing -- it's an attempt to get us to
identify the "common" people around us with our highest aspirations. I
think that's a pretty important idea.
Jim
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Nov 12 2001 - 17:22:39 GMT