Re: ZOOEYCAM
ZxPx@aol.com
Sat, 27 Feb 1999 18:41:32 -0500 (EST)
Zen principles seem to keep popping up in the stories but it doesn't seem to
be the strongest Eastern influence. It is primarily aesthetic and not
religious ideas that attract Seymour and Buddy to Zen literature. The Zen
concepts that I see in the Glass stories at least are the notion that
composition should be intuitive and spontaneous, and that literature should
"Enlighten or enlarge" the reader "to within an inch of his life." Like a
koan it should bring about spiritual insight. Seymour and Buddy's roots in
Eastern philosophy are not planted in Zen Buddhism but in the New and Old
Testaments, Advaita Vedanta, and classical Taoism.
As for Catcher, the only real reference to Eastern philosophy I saw was with
Carl Luce, who tells Holden that he finds "Eastern philosophy more
satisfactory than Western." His preference stems from a sexual relationship
that he has with a Chinese woman. He says he likes Oriental girls because
they "regard sex as both a physical and a spiritual experience." When Holden
asks him to explain what he means, Luce exposes himself as a phony
intellectual who is pre-occupied with sex. This characterization of Luce is
not an attck on Eastern philosophy but on those who are attracted to it
because they think it allows them to have their spiritual cake and eat it,
too.
as always,
zachary