Re: From Daumier to Smith
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@hotpop.com)
Fri, 17 Sep 1999 18:54:00 +1000
Jim wrote:
> << So in a way he is actually
> Salinger's *most* self reflexive character - >>
>
> No way, I can't buy this. You're tracing a tendency well enough, but
taking
> it much further than is actually present in the text. Holden does talk
about
> himself from the perspective of the reader -- DDS does so far, far
less...if
> at all. The point is that Holden's solipsism is far less absolute than
DDS's
> -- he can step outside and look at himself.
Not even the fact that he is telling the story to us? A question that was
always asked of me when I began writing but which always baffled me was:
why are you telling this story? Why has DDS chosen to tell this tale, out
of all his numerous hypothetical adventures? Isn't that in itself self
reflexive? Isn't that stepping out of yourself - or in DDS visiting an
earlier self who is vastly different from the person you are today? You
could even call this Salinger's recent major theme - that the JDS who wrote
nasty letters about Charlie Chaplin is NOT by any stretch of the
imagination the 80 year old man of today.
Camille
verona_beach@hotpop.com