RE: Pilgrim Books
Erin McLaughlin (erinseyes@hotmail.com)
Sat, 17 Oct 1998 21:11:10 -0700 (PDT)
Look, I KNOW the futility of trying to force your values and beliefs on
someone else. What I DON'T KNOW is what we'd need transcendence for if
there's nothing beigger beyond us. I guess it's just that, for me, the
carousel is beautiful NOT because of God, but because of HUMANITY. But
it's this humanity which I can't explain, and the need for some sort of
transcendence to make it truly beautiful implies there is something more
to it than what it is, doesn't it? That is, if you believe there's such
a thing as true beauty..because that concept alone implies there is some
quality in it that is unattainable for mere mortals to possess except at
times of enlightenment. Of course, you'll proabably disagree, which is
OK.
----Original Message Follows----
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 16:56:35 -0700
From: Sean Draine <seandr@microsoft.com>
Subject: RE: Pilgrim Books
To: "'bananafish@lists.nyu.edu'" <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Reply-to: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
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
>
"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity." --H.D. Thoreau
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