Re: The Laughing Man
Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 21:17:25 -0800 (PST)
What I didn't
>really understand was the story of the Laughing Man itself. It seemed
>fraught with meaning and ripe for interpretation but I couldn't make
heads
>or tails of it. So when I said that I didn't really "get" the story, I
was
>referring to the internal one, not the interplay between the internal
and
>metanarrative lines of the story.
>Hope that clarifies it and look forward to reading your responses.
>
>Peggy
That's interesting; I've never really tried to look at the internal
story for any meaning, which is very incongruous with my
usual readings of Salinger. When I read "Catcher" for the
first time in high school, it was my first experience with Symolism,
with the idea that the text may mean something more that what
it tells you explicitly--and what a book to start with! Consequently,
I've always started a Salinger story with the intention of finding
What He Meant. Of course, I always get so wrapped up with
the characters themselves that I forget to look for the hidden
Code. That's one of the reasons this list is so valuable to me;
it opens up my mind to interpreting the stories, as much because
of having to contribute my own posts as reading the posts of
others.
Anyway, as far as the Laughing Man, I haven't got a clue. (That
was a long way to go for nothing. Sorry.) Thinking about it, I
still find it difficult to match it to any meaning that I've already
found in any other Salinger stories; I find that a lot of his Hidden
Meanings are threaded throughout his entire catalogue. I realize
that this post doesn't help, but at the least let it emphasize my
enthusiasm at hearing what anyone else thinks.
Brendan
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