Re: seymour
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Mon, 06 Oct 1997 23:56:22 -0500
> i'm not even going to get into this one with only 20 minutes...probably
> the best thing to to would be to go and look at the bananafish archives,
> the address is in the welcome list you got when you subscribed.
It's funny, I've gone back there each time I update them with new traffic,
and I'm always surprised by the range of discussions. It's really broad --
and it should convince all of you who think, "Do I dare?" to post what you
think; as another person said tonight (I'm too tired to track back the
reference, sorry!), we're generally a friendly bunch here!
> that's the simple explanation, but i think there are actually a lot of
> reasons. maybe he felt that he was just too spiritually advanced to stay
> here any longer, that this was the thing for him to do. maybe he loved
> muriel too much (in..um..."raise high..." (??) in his journal he discusses
> how happy muriel makes him feel)...
This is a detail that has always bothered me, because the journal entries
have always made me envision a man trying to convince himself of something
he knows is not really true. I suspect we've all done this in the past,
and I think I catch a whiff of it when he talks so blissfully about Muriel.
This is not an explanation of why he did what he did -- but I can't help
thinking of it as an essential part of Seymour's character. In one sense,
a man more fond of the idea of (conventional) love than a man who is one
half of the loving couple.
And then I may be just having a cynical day....
--tim o'connor