RE: Pilgrim Books

Sean Draine (seandr@microsoft.com)
Fri, 16 Oct 1998 16:56:35 -0700

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
>