Re: seymour
anaconda (anaconda@wwa.com)
Mon, 06 Oct 1997 17:47:21 -0400
At 03:30 PM 10/6/97 -0700, you wrote:
>This is just a general question and all of you will probably shoot me for
>asking this- but I'm just getting into Salenger- I read Catcher in the
>Rye, and then I tried Nine Stories- my question is after reading A
>perfect day for bananafish- i had never read about seymour before- i knew
An excellent story :} There is something about Bananafish that I have always
found morbidly fascinating. Since I haven't been able to find my Introduction
to Seymour in awhile, I am a bit rusty on his background...but a repurchase
and
another read is due. That said...
>he was part of that whole "glass" clan that everyone's discussing- but
>I haven't read anything about them- Well, why did Seymour kill himself?
Most of what i find morbidly disturbing about Seymour is why he actually
did it, and how Salinger decided to end the story: in such a calm and
matter of fact manner, he sits, pulls out the magazine, pops it back in
and blam! Gone forever. Perhaps Seymour felt he had "banana fever"?
>Who was the girl on the beach? Who was the girl in the room? and that
Just some girl that met him in the hotel. The woman in the room was
his wife.
>thing about banana fish, is that some analogy for something else? Pardon
My guess would be over-indulgence. A point where we become stuck in whatever
"hole" we choose to enter to indulge. This little story reminded me of
Steinbeck's Ethan in Winter of Our Discontent, where Ethan went on about
how them squirrels just keep gathering more and more nuts, seemingly
never getting enough, trapped in gathering and never being able to enjoy.
Here is the point where it might make more sense to know Seymour's
background,
wasn't he Buddhist? Moderation-oriented? Muriel did not really seem like that
type of a person, at least from the story.
>my stupidity, but do I need to have read "Seymour an Introduction" or
>something else before I can understand this? Someone please explain.
I am sure it would help a little. For some reason, when I first read
Seymour, I didn't notice that it was _the_ See-more-glass. :}
Other oddities of the story:
The nonexistent "tattoo", that he didn't want anyone to see?
His kiss on Sysbil's arch.
"If you want to look at my feet, why not say so, but don't be a
god damned sneak about it" --> a perfect salinger line!
Did he crack in the war? Didn't he write letters to Buddy and Zooey?
The downside of Salinger (if any) is that I tend to lose all of my books
to whomever I get hooked on them...and now I go searching for em and
they are nowhere to be found :{
On another note: anyone have any luck digging up all of the articles
that are in the old magazines? I'd like to look into looking for some
of the articles, and I think I have an "in" at a local university.
And one last oddity: Whenever I think of Seymour, I picture this tall
guy hunched up in the bathtub with a long ashed cigarette in one hand
and a letter in the other.
Thanks for letting me ramble away about one of my favorite stories!
-bob
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"though we've talked and talked and talked,
we've all agreed not to say a word."
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