Phoebe on the merry-go-round, the girl hiding behind a tree from her dog, these are indeed sources of transcendence in a mundane world for Salinger's characters. But they are transcendent in a way that requires no reference to a god or any other mystical entities. In my mind, god would only cheapen them. Put another way, one can see the beauty in these moments and not believe in God. > -----Original Message----- > From: Camille Scaysbrook [mailto:verona_beach@geocities.com] > Sent: Thursday, October 15, 1998 4:15 PM > To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu > Subject: Re: Pilgrim Books > > > > > > > > One of the main points of all the Glass > > > > stories, for me, is that Salinger presents the sacred > as right here > in > > > > front of us rather than putting it off in some netherworld. > > > > > > But exactly! Is this not the very antithesis of mysticism? > > > > No, I don't think it is. Most of the mystics I have read > talk about > this > > world. > > Absolutely! And the main point of much modernist and > postmodernist writings > has been that transcendence can, does and in fact in a modern > world must, > occur in the most seemingly inappropriate of places. That's > what TS Eliot's > `Four Quartets' is all about and it's what's crystalised in Holden's > watching Phoebe go round and round on the merry go round. The > possibility > of transcendence in a mundane world. > > Camille > verona_beach@geocities.com > @ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442 > @ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest >