Re: Not our O'Connor, the other one & a dearth of Christianity
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Wed, 09 Jul 1997 11:12:21 -0600 (MDT)
josh, i think we taste that same humble pie all the time and in fact, I
think "muffing" a title is little compared to your good linking of two
great writers. I'm not too taken away with FO's novels, but I consider
her short stories to among our bery best. I think you are wise to seek
religious links between her work and salingers, though they seem to come
to similar understandings from very divergent places and styles.
Salinger's stories are poetic in their compression and seemingly
perfecctly apropos brevity and intensity. O'Connor gets her intensity
and poetry differently--as if she makes long tosses of ideas and
characters that only at the end reach us deep inside. Her prose is longer
and she addresses religion more directly, but I think both writers want to
seperate aspects of religion, spirit and humanity. By using religion
(either explicitly in FO or implicitly in JDS), I think these writers get
beyond all religions to some very religious and spiritual places for
humans. I think they make readers touch their own humanity through some
spiritual portals that may be framed with religious thinking, but are pure
"glass" in the way let readers get to better spirtual places in
themselves.
john (suerte), recently sonny noted in a post to me that salinger's
religious facination with vedanta and that makes sense to me since his
studies in hinduism when he was in new york are pretty much a biographical
fact. I tend to have confidence in an idea I found in the work of
Elizabeth Kurian (it's wrong to think sonny knows every literate mind in
india, but I wonder if he knows her?). In her book, _A Religious Response
to the Existential Dilemma in the Fiction of J.D. Slainger_(l992) she
analyzes salinger's use of judiasm, christianity, buddishm and hinduism in
terms of his ideas and her interpretations and manages a pretty lucid and
persuasive argument of salinger's blending and movement beyond religious
to spirtual issues of humans. As you could note from her title, she
attempts to specify my sense of humanity into the idea of "existential
dilemma" and I won't quibble since her phrase just might help us all sense
that sense of how salinger understands human falibility and brilliance in
some pretty accessible ways...as for the more on the poetic
allusions--they aren' t concrete though I think sonny and a sorely missed
x bananafisher Matt Kosuko come up with some very astute links that
constantly reify my sense that salinger loves literature and despite his
characterization of section men, loves intelligent use of literature in
his own work. The text that really shows that idea to me is the way he
uses Kafka and Kierkekaard quotes at the beginning of SAI. I mean he's
using K&K and their ideas about lit's deeper understanding of error
(life beyond grammar and spelling!) and I think the whole story plays with
the falseness and beautiful illusion of making characters come to life and
the way "a slip of the pen" often becomes inspired in the right hands (do
go right to that "Dear Tyger" letter if you need to feel what I mean).
Ok, ok, I'm writing too much but both john and josh make me swim so
wonderfully in their ideas I can't stop...but I will stop this email for
now and get my suspended license back...as I stand on the motor vehicle
line forever, I'm going to let buddy sing to me in SAI and love every fat
lady and bananfish I see!
will
On Tue, 8 Jul 1997, Josh Feldmeth wrote:
> Will: (swiping pie off my face) I can't believe I muffed that. Of
> course its AGMIHRF. That is also the title of her definitive colletion
> of several short stories. Short story paragon yes, but don't forget her
> great novels, "The Violent Bare it Away" "Wiseblood" and "Everything the
> Rises Must Converge". It is somewhat of a surprise that her name is not
> mentioned on this list more because she does rival JDS' short story
> acumen. But on second thought maybe its not very suprising because her
> subjects are typically Christian in orientation and from experience,
> that's not a subject that churns the bananafish butter.
>
> Seguay JDS: What about religion? I can't remember many JDS characters
> (Glass, Caulfied et al) refering to denominational or traditional
> American religions with anything but the most passing of interests.
> Any thoughts?
>
> WILL HOCHMAN wrote:
> >
> > Josh, do you mean the character in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"? Although
> > O'Connor's stories are very different than salinger's, i think they are
> > both among the very best american short story writers! will
> >
>
> > >
>