Subject: Re: Everybody is a Nun
From: Catherine Marie (tangerineness@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Jan 23 2000 - 12:34:46 EST
>Has anyone else noticed that the ending of DDSBP and F&Z end with a
>statement to the effect that everyone is holy? DDSBP has "Everybody is a
>nun" and F&Z something about everyone is the Fatlady/Christ.
> SaI ends by telling us everywhere is holy, all we do our whole lives is
>go
>from one little piece of holy ground to the next, or thats as close as I
>can
>remember it anyway, don't have the book here.
>All of the above was written in the 50's or later. Can anyone remember when
>it was that Salinger came under his eastern influence?
>
>Paul M
Paul
I've noticed F+Z and S:AI, but I never connected it with DDSBP. I am rather
in love with the end of Zooey, I mean the very end, the last paragraph,
especially this part: "[Franny] appeared to find [the dial tone]
extraordanarily beautiful to listen to, rather as if it were the best
possible substitute for the primordal silence itself. But she seemed to
know, too, when to stop listening to it, as if all of what little or much
wisdom there is in the world were suddenly hers" and then, the last line,
"For some minutes, before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, she just
lay quiet, smiling at the ceiling." The dial tone as a substitute for
primordal science is such a beautiful way to conclude the book. It really
says that, yes, everyone is holy, but everything, too. As does the smiling
at the ceiling. Well, what can I say? If I'm anything at all by a religious
name I'm pantheistic. As far as Seymour:An Introduction, the line you used
(Seymour once said that all we do our whole lives is go from one little
piece of Holy Ground to the next) is another one I love. I once typed it up,
and made it fit the page, so I could look at it in large font. There was
something way too enjoyable about that. I really don't know what to say
about it, except that I think it's true, and that it says something more
people should pay attention to. I won't say anything about DDSBP right now
because I need to read it again. I guess what both of the others say is that
we should be more respectful, and have more humility. I think as not only
humans but humans in rather good circumstances we take too much for granted,
and that if we maybe were more respectful to other humans, but also to the
objects around us, the ground we walk on (which, don't forget, Seymour said
was Holy Ground) maybe we would all be a bit better off.
Catherine
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