Re: Inverted Forests
Mattis Fishman (mattis@argos.argoscomp.com)
Fri, 25 Jul 1997 09:58:31 -0400
Friends,
Since the story "The Inverted Forest" has been brought up, I thought this
might be a good time to ask something that's been bothering me since I
recently read it.
For me, it was was impossible to ignore the comparison between Ford and
Seymour as "major" American poets. By the time Seymour was fully developed
as a character, one gets the sense that the title poet is the highest
compliment Buddy could pay to anyone, almost the Western niche which would
correspond to the more Eastern "occupation" of holy man. Yet to my reading,
Ray Ford is far, far from this ideal.
The questions that I have are: is Ray Ford a proto-Seymour destroying
himself as a consequence of the depth of his feelings as evidenced by the
poetic gift he possesses? is he a phony, and only a great poet in the
academic sense? are his character failings unrelated to being a poet, rather
to his miserable childhood? did Salinger only later develop his concept
of the poet as bhodisatva? can one be a true poet and see nothing but
dispair?
My own feeling is that the story is not focused on the nature of the life,
strugle and death of a poet (as the Seymour opus might be viewed) but rather
as "misery seeking its own level" - the little boy Ray who is cast out
with his destitute mother, grows up unable to love and gravitates
eventually to an unnatural, adulterous, alchoholic, self-destructive
relationship (which is in contrast to Corinne who is coming from a different
direction). Along the way, he develops his poetic voice and finds that
his audience is more than empathetic to a description of life which
is comparable to a wasteland, an inverted forest.
If I could ask a single question it would be: does the Salinger who molded
Seymour feel that being a great poet implies having a Seymour-like
spiritual outlook (and if so, then Ray Ford was either created before JDS
took this position, or else was intended to be a phony), or is being a poet
simply developing the eyes and voice, with the spiritual outcome highly
dependent upon one's predisposition (i.e: Ray the unloved, becomes
Ray the loveless), or (and this is just the first option reworded) is a
poet only a poet if he can get past his own personality?
(By the way, Will, I cannot see Ray Ford as Seymour without a family, rather
as someone who couldn't recognize a rather large watch he received in the
mail)
I agree with Rod that Bunny was almost bizarre, she is so far from
anyone or anything I know that I can't relate to her at all - does anyone
have any experiences with this type of person?
All the best,
Mattis