Re: ZOOEYCAM

blah b b blah (jrovira@juno.com)
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 19:24:34 -0500 (EST) 

Yeah, but Camille, WHICH Eastern religion makes a lot of difference.  Zen
isn't the same as, say, something influenced by the Gita or other
offshoots of Hinduism.  Zen has a much more strongly apophatic emphasis
than some of the yogas, I'm pretty sure.  It's like saying Christianity
and Judaism are essentially the same because they both draw from the
Hebrew Scriptures.  Yeah, there are similarities in some areas, but much
more radical differences.  In Eastern religions the only reading I've
done is in the Vedas, I haven't hit any Chinese literature except for the
Tao, or Japanese except for the Art of War.     

I remember your paper and actually had it on the Salinger message boards
on AOL (with your permission :) ).  It may be archived somewhere, I'll
check it out.  If I can find it I'll send it back to you.  The one I am
thinking of was pretty good and described Salinger's attachment to the
ramakrishna center and some of the ways it may have influenced his
literature.  

Jim    

PS Ok, now I've just reread the paper you posted.  Glad you were able to
find it :)  It was as good as I remember.  

Ok, to the content.  I Should Have Known that anything American would be
a smattering of a lot of different disciplines.  So it was Zen And a lot
of other things.  

The parallels you drew between the ending of Catcher and Zen was pretty
interesting -- almost convincing.  I can see Holden returning to his
questions in an "enlightened" manner at the end of Catcher.  But part of
me is thinking that the Zen aspect sounds overemphasized.  I know that's
not fair, that's just the subject of your inquiry.  I think Salinger was
a writer First and a devotee of Zen and other eastern philosophies
Second, and I'd guess that's why his Hapworth leaned toward more words
rather than fewer.  

On Wed, 03 Mar 1999 17:14:22 +1100 Camille Scaysbrook
<verona_beach@geocities.com> writes:
>Jim wrote:
>> I think we need to make sure our facts are straight first, and then
>> there's a theoretical side to this that it may be interesting to 
>address.
>
>As far as I know Salinger's interest in Eastern religion - and I'll 
>use
>that broad qualification - was, like any sort of interest, something 
>that
>grew from an amateur to serious study. Such a growth of study is, I 
>think,
>represented in his work. To me, `Teddy' is the work of someone who is 
>crazy
>about something - in this case, Eastern religion - and wants to tell
>everyone about it. It's a pretty broad, Zen 101 view of things. So too
>`Catcher' - it seems to exhibit the mind of someone who's been 
>studying Zen
>in the night and then going back to his `day job'. Residually, it 
>feels all
>like the influence is over it to me. Like you say, we must be wary of
>imposing such things on his work with the benefit of hindsight, but 
>knowing
>the direction his fiction was one day to take it's not at all 
>unreasonable
>to try to track its growth in his stories and novel - and it *is* a 
>growth,
>when we consider the progression even from `Franny' to `Zooey'. People
>don't become interested and influenced by things overnight.
>
>I've argued a lot for my interpretation of Salinger's use of Zen as a
>structural and sometime thematic device in his writings (I still 
>haven't
>found that thesis I wrote on the topic, anyone got it on file?). I've 
>read
>that Salinger wrote much Eastern style poetry in the 40s and 50s that 
>he
>would rather have died than show to a magazine - the stories for which 
>were
>his main source of income. I don't think it's unreasonable that his 
>study
>of Eastern religion should inform - even subconsciously - his writing 
>of
>stories, a craft which, like that of the koan or haiku, involves
>compression of meaning into the smallest, most elegant and ineffable
>package. Or even that he should try to edify his public - as the great
>Phony Basher would presumably like to?
>
>Like everything this can only ever remain a theory but I don't think 
>it's a
>wholly implausible one.
>
>Camille
>verona_beach@geocities.com
>@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
>@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>

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