The confused entry of a newbie
Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 06:09:23 -0700 (PDT)
Hi again (again for me, since I tried to mail you without being authorized)!
I was fooled by the introduction text saying: “ Feel free to subscribe and
introduce yourself by sending a message to bananafish@lists.nyu.edu ”
I thought it meant I was to mail you and then, maybe, if I didn’t make a
total --- of myself, I could join. So I felt real free to subscribe and
introduce myself, and here is what I wrote:
Hello all!
I’ve been an active Salinger reader for ten years now, meaning that Zooey
started out being a few years older than me first time he appeared, and
then, last time I read F&Z, he was a lot younger (as was his behavior, I
noticed :).
Something about the characters stick on me, makes me come back from whatever
expedition I have been on. Jesus asking Zooey if he could have a small class
of ginger ale is just something one has to come back to.
The God of search engines, the Alta Vista, helped me find this message
board. It does look pretty alive and kicking, judging by the bulk of
messages.
Introducing myself, hmmm. This (The Laughing Man) is really my ol’ zone
name, from my short period of Internet Online Gaming. The name got stuck on
me and now I can almost feel myself crossing the Chinese-French border, my
hideous laughter roaming the countryside.
When I do take that alter ego-bag off my head, my eyes rest on the city of
my heart, Stockholm. I travel quite a lot (not only between China and
France), but returning to the clean Stockholm air and the safe sound of
sirens, I feel totally at rest.
Workwise, I find myself putting a tie on four days out of five. When did
that happen? I spend years and years at the university, switching from
physics to philosophy to literature and back to physics, going for grad
work, than switching again to history of science to actually do grad studies
– happily ignorant of dry cleaners, ties and board meetings. And one day I
wake up and find myself telling old guys in large rooms what to do in their
businesses, power-point being my primary work-tool.
No wonder I go back to my happy days of reading Salinger, “mixing memory and
desire”: imaging myself in the back of an army truck (we have mandatory
military service in Sweden, for your information), endless hours of waiting;
or reading aloud to a new girlfriend, watching her reactions; or simply on
the cliffs of Amargos, suddenly unaware of the deep blue ocean around me.
Nostalgia, yes. But there is much more to me in reading Salinger. That’s why
I wanted to join. To hear your thoughts and share my own. I hope I’m
welcome.
/The Laughing Man
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