RE: Looking (for) Glass

John Touzios (JTouzios@mwumail.midwestern.edu)
Tue, 23 Mar 1999 15:21:38 -0600 

paul,
  are you saying what i think you're saying?  i've come to the somewhat proud 
conclusion that reading, say, a zen story involves much more than the 
processing of information via the cerebral cortex.  the story was written 
before the author ever started transmitting it with his or her words, and most 
of the appreciation of the story involves tapping into that original story.  
now, if the glass family is fictional, this will affect the actual story.  i'm 
remembering salinger refering to seymour telling stories that he had to have 
made up from thin air, never having had contact with, say, an attractive 
mother having an affair.  what does this tell me?  it never happened, but it 
might as well have?  i'm not content with it, folks.  is this a puzzle to 
meditate on?  if seymour ever truly existed then you can go back and figure it 
out for yourself, like teddy could go back and figure out the way his body was 
put together.  according to the book of john, the logos took physical form and 
walked the earth. wow!  it did?  i had a dream once in which i had buddy's and 
seymour's library packed up in books before me.  there were some paintings in 
the boxes as well, and i didn't even know that seymour was supposed to paint 
(as i've heard mentioned in references to the new salinger book.)  the thing 
about the dream, guys, is that most of the book titles were never mentioned in 
the salinger stories; i just sort of knew that these titles (ones i had never 
heard of) were supposed to be there.  moreover, i could feel buddy and seymour 
on the books.  if seymour never really existed then i guess i've failed this 
little test.  at least for now,
  john
>===== Original Message From Paul Kennedy <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu> =====
>Hey John!  Welcome aboard!  I'm relatively new myself, but I'd be willing to
>bet that there hasn't been a more nearly metaphysical entry onto the list in
>a long time:
>
>
>
>
>  my question is:  is the glass family real?
>
>
>
>Hmmmmmmm.  Where to begin?

"Man the most complex, intricate and delicately constructed 
machine of all creation, is the one with which the osteopath 
must become familiar."  A.T. Still

"Everyone seems to know how useful it is to be useful.
 No one seems to know how useful it is to be useless."
                           Chuang Tzu