Comments on: The Tragic Life of Bananafish http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/02/alex-abramovich/the-tragic-life-of-bananafish/ The Blog of the London Review of Books Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:00:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: strawsercj http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/02/alex-abramovich/the-tragic-life-of-bananafish/comment-page-1/#comment-613 strawsercj Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:34:59 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=3192#comment-613 I agree with you, Carpenters is a wonderful story. (As is Bananafish, of course.) And to answer your questions, clearly I think the latter. Or, now that I come to think of it, both! In the early (readable) Salinger, we find more than one central character (Seymour, also "For Esme With Love and Squalor") with an unspecified WWII trauma, that he never is seen dealing with directly, instead escaping to the company of innocent young girls. I wish Salinger had tried to deal with that trauma in later stories, instead of what he did in "Seymour: An Introduction" and the camp-letter piece. I agree with you, Carpenters is a wonderful story. (As is Bananafish, of course.) And to answer your questions, clearly I think the latter. Or, now that I come to think of it, both!
In the early (readable) Salinger, we find more than one central character (Seymour, also “For Esme With Love and Squalor”) with an unspecified WWII trauma, that he never is seen dealing with directly, instead escaping to the company of innocent young girls. I wish Salinger had tried to deal with that trauma in later stories, instead of what he did in “Seymour: An Introduction” and the camp-letter piece.

]]> By: Phil http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/02/alex-abramovich/the-tragic-life-of-bananafish/comment-page-1/#comment-611 Phil Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:58:16 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=3192#comment-611 I haven't read A Perfect Day...; in fact I'd never read any of the Glass stories until I picked up RHTRBC b/w Seymour, An Introduction a while back. (I quite liked RHTRBC - a nice bit of New Yorker drollery with a weird, yearning encomium instead of a central character - but couldn't finish the second, which is all encomium.) Now I'm curious. Buddy Glass can't see any of these things about Seymour - or <b>anything</b> but a weird yogic perfection of humanity. Is Buddy's blindness (or over-compensation) the real subject of those two stories? (That would make S, An I a great deal more interesting.) Or is it Salinger who's trying to change the subject and ignore the dark side of his own creation? I haven’t read A Perfect Day…; in fact I’d never read any of the Glass stories until I picked up RHTRBC b/w Seymour, An Introduction a while back. (I quite liked RHTRBC – a nice bit of New Yorker drollery with a weird, yearning encomium instead of a central character – but couldn’t finish the second, which is all encomium.)

Now I’m curious. Buddy Glass can’t see any of these things about Seymour – or anything but a weird yogic perfection of humanity. Is Buddy’s blindness (or over-compensation) the real subject of those two stories? (That would make S, An I a great deal more interesting.) Or is it Salinger who’s trying to change the subject and ignore the dark side of his own creation?

]]> By: strawsercj http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/02/alex-abramovich/the-tragic-life-of-bananafish/comment-page-1/#comment-607 strawsercj Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:31:38 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=3192#comment-607 It's a lot worse than H.H. Sybil is no Lolita--she's 4 years old or so. This new information confirms my sense that Seymour's encounter with Sybil Carpenter is creepy in the extreme--I was frightened for her the whole time she was in the water. He's not too pure to live, he's too dangerous to little girls, any day he may love one to death--murder her before she grows old enough to shop at Saks and lacquer her nails. As you say, his disgust "turns self-prophylactic". I just think it's a shame he had to inflict his suicide on Muriel, who, according to her conversation with her mother, loved and trusted him. (The Seymour of "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is consistent with my interpretation. The later versions of Seymour are insane attempts to change the subject.) It’s a lot worse than H.H. Sybil is no Lolita–she’s 4 years old or so.

This new information confirms my sense that Seymour’s encounter with Sybil Carpenter is creepy in the extreme–I was frightened for her the whole time she was in the water. He’s not too pure to live, he’s too dangerous to little girls, any day he may love one to death–murder her before she grows old enough to shop at Saks and lacquer her nails. As you say, his disgust “turns self-prophylactic”. I just think it’s a shame he had to inflict his suicide on Muriel, who, according to her conversation with her mother, loved and trusted him. (The Seymour of “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” is consistent with my interpretation. The later versions of Seymour are insane attempts to change the subject.)

]]> By: jcclakeru http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/02/02/alex-abramovich/the-tragic-life-of-bananafish/comment-page-1/#comment-547 jcclakeru Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:51:04 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=3192#comment-547 Sounds like Humbert Humbert to me Sounds like Humbert Humbert to me

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