Re: JD the genius

Lauren N Passot (madbravo@juno.com)
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 16:37:46 -0500 

Zooey and the bathroom... one of the few articles which, if I had the
time, would incessantly read... well with a fair number of breaks for
Holden.

Best,
Lauren
*********************************************************************************************
On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 13:22:40 -0600 (MDT) WILL HOCHMAN
<hochman@uscolo.edu> writes:
>Kari, hi, I'm one of the college professors on this list and have the 
>luck
>to be teaching a "Salinger Seminar" (English 493) with a very talented
>group of some of my university's best students.  To be honest, it has
>taken me a long time to be able to teach such a course since becoming 
>a
>college professor is not easy trick.  However, I am lucky and was 
>tapped
>by the folks at the u of southern colorado (in no small part for my
>interest in computers) and then after a few years, they let me offer 
>my
>salinger seminar...hope this helps.  BTW, I am working on developing a
>salinger seminar for students online...
>
>will
>
>ps: yes, I love the bathroom scene in zooey and yes, I sometimes think 
>of
>buddy finishing up SAI and teaching...
>
>On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Lomanno wrote:
>
>> Camille wrote:
>> 
>> > I guess the best writers are the ones who
>> > give the least impression that there's a lot of mechanics going on 
>under
>> > the smooth skin of the story. Salinger's a master at this, when I 
>first
>> > read TCIR I thought it was so wonderfully random; yet now I know 
>how
>> > tightly structured it is in some ways.
>> 
>> That, to me, is what makes Salinger my favorite author. He writes as 
>if
>> he's talking to you personally, telling stories off the top of his 
>head.
>> Yet when you read carefully you realize that every sentence, every 
>word,
>> every LETTER has been painstakingly and meticulously chosen for a
>> certain purpose.
>> 
>> One of my favorite scenes is in "Zooey" when Mrs. Glass is in the 
>> bathroom while Zooey is taking a bath, and every tedious detail of 
>their
>> conversation and movement is given. Page after page, the reader is 
>> forced to remain in this painful scene, and although on the surface 
>it
>> appears to be just a mother and son annoying each other , there is 
>this
>> underlying tension that you can't name specifically, but it's 
>definitely
>> there. This scene, to me, is one of the most important in the book, 
>and
>> Salinger writes it as if it's completely irrelevant. That is the 
>genius
>> of JD.
>> 
>> I've really been enjoying our lively discussions, but it's nice to 
>get
>> away from all the theorizing and just enjoy the texts. I have a
>> question: I know at least one of the list members is a college 
>professor
>> teaching a class on Salinger, and I'm not sure who. Could you tell 
>me
>> where you're teaching and how you came to teach a Salinger class? 
>That
>> is one of my career aspirations when I graduate (to teach Salinger), 
>but
>> there are no such classes in my area right now. I'm wondering how 
>one
>> would go about petitioning to get a class like that started.
>> 
>> --Kari Lomanno (there was nothing "mysterious" about my lack of a
>> signature; I just did not yet know the e-mail protocol!)
>> 
>
>

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