Re: Carpenters...
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 00:19:58 -0500
Abra wrote:
> That could be... I didn´t catch that one myself, but I can see what you
> mean... However, I´m not sure what Salinger is saying about this, as he
> seems to like both girls... From this text, which perspective would you
> say Salinger likes more??? Do you think he lies when he tell Sybil he
> only let Sharon sit on the pianobench, because Sybil wasn´t there???
Abra--
I have to admit, I was dehydrated and bleeding from the head and
consequently a bit dizzy when I formulated the
"contending-approaches-to-Christ" thesis. I'm not sure it pans out,
in the end.
I think that ultimately, Sybil's connection to Christ is more or less
untenable in comparison with her connection to Sibyl of Cumae, who is
invoked in Eliot's prologue note to "The Wasteland." Surely Saliner
has in mind the same Sybil ("y" and "i" cleverly transposed, as
perhaps are "banana" and "apple" in the story as a whole). "Bfish"
associates itself further with "Wasteland" (somebody else just
mentioned this) via a few quoatations. And there's a whole hand of
Raymond Ford/Wasteland connections that carry over to "Bfish" by
virtue of the two stories having a dead poet/seer as their focal
point.
In Eliot's prologue, Sibyl wants to die. She is prevented, I think,
by a kind of curse--she had asked for eternal life but neglected to
request eternal youth as well, and so she, like Seymour, is hopelessly
beyond childhood and very eager to die.
I don't know where this leaves Sharon. Perhaps with her "lips shut,"
she prefigures the silent, cigar smoking uncle of "Roofbeam."
--
Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu