Re: Hapworth?

Brian Flanigan (flanigan@magibox.net)
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 21:25:30 +0000

-----Original Message-----
From: Diego M. Dell'Era <dellerad@sinectis.com.ar>
To: JDS Discussion List <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Date: Saturday, October 31, 1998 12:34 AM
Subject: Hapworth?


[EDITED:]


>    Why are there so few allusions to Hapworth here? I haven't
>read it yet, but I reckon many people on the list have. Any
>particular reason?
>                                                              Saludos,
> - diego d.


I read about Hapworth15-17 years ago, and since I was working at Cornell and
had access to its libraries, I found a copy of the New Yorker (I think that
is what the magazine is called) and xeroxed the entire story.  (Of course I
still have a copy.)  [Digression: I offered it to an English professor of
mine once (because I knew he liked Salinger) and he declined to borrow and
read it.  It looked too long.  He explained, "I am not a Salinger scholar."]
It is long; too long, I suppose, for popularity.  And it is intense.  Not so
much the events described, but the exposure to Seymour's powers of
observations and his interests and his opinions.  It is not 'catchy' or
'fun': it's a dense, almost Proustian (if you will forgive the expression)
text of a seven (or so) year old genius.  [I am assuming you know it is in
the form of a letter from Seymour, as a child at summer camp, with Buddy, to
his parents and family.]  Anyway it is good and powerful.  It is just not
formed, or styled, or structured like a proper 'short story.'  I realize I
haven't answered your question, '...so few allusions to Hapworth...', but I
just want to allude to it!

don't let go the coat, Brian