re: "Nice" and French (Warren)
Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Thu, 30 Oct 1997 09:26:06 -0600
George Ford <bf20455@binghamton.edu> wrote:
> There is a part of (I believe) RHTRBC in which, in a letter, Boo Boo (I
> think) recounts on of Zooey's appearences on It's a Wise Child, in which
> he goes on at length about how "nice" it would be if everyon elooked
> alike. He uses the word nice, quotated, quite a few times. It is, in
> fact, the only adjective he uses. I always found that bit amusing, but
> now I may have to look at it again interms of this discussion of "nice"
> and "phony".
Does this come from the same part where Zooey is saying he'd like to
live in a new suburban housing development? Where you couldn't tell
which house was yours but you'd pull into any driveway, go in and have
supper with a different family and kiss them goodnight? This is exactly
the kind of thing I was thinking about. "Nice" seems to be Salinger's
code for that innocent time when distinctions are impossible or
unnecessary -- before people have swallowed much of the apple (Western
"objective" knowledge) Teddy talks about. I am also reminded of how
thrilled Buddy was after talking to the little girl in the grocery store
who had "2 boyfriends": one male and one female.
This goes pretty far beyond French's exploration of the term "nice," by
the way. As I said before, his interpretation is not terribly deep. He
basically ignores the effect of Eastern philosophy on Salinger's writing
-- not a wise thing to do, for a Salinger scholar.
Jon Tveite