Re: ZOOEYCAM
Pierrot65@aol.com
Fri, 26 Feb 1999 19:49:04 -0500 (EST)
Camille --
I actually agree with everything you said about zen (and I meant to say that
one of Holden's choices, or his daydream of the cliff, was to catch them, not
to suggest that he had decided. My bad.). I think all I meant was that the
zen angle often overwhelms everything else, that many Buddhist approaches to
the fiction that I've read work toward the exclusion of other interpretations.
I think also that many of these approaches focus too much on Salinger's
personaI encounters with zen: not that that isn't important, because it
obviously has a bearing, but so much of the talk about Salinger the man is
wild speculation that I would rather not hear some lit-critic's clever
guesses. (And by the way, did anybody catch the jackass who did a piece for
Esquire a couple of years ago, Richard R-something? This dipstick crows all
article long about his respect for Jerry's privacy, then goes creeping in the
bushes and leaves a note in the mailbox. I've thought ever since that that may
be the reason we haven't seen Hapworth yet.) I think the zen angle is maybe,
probably the most rewarding approach, but it is not the only one, as you said.
Like a typical man I was thinking with my fingers instead of my brain.
rick