Subject: Re: Sick More Glass
From: citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2000 - 12:43:11 GMT
Thanks to various bfish who responded to my post. Various replies follow:
Scout,
The book in question is "Salinger's Glass Stories as a Composite Novel", by
Eberhard Alsen, published by The Whitston Publishing Company of Troy, New
York (yes, "Hapworth 16, 1924" readers), in 1983. I think it is out of
print, and I got a copy through the Interlibrary Loan Department of my
library. Personally, I don't think "For Esme, with Love and Squalor" is
about Seymour.
Sean,
I too recalled the previous suicide attempt from that line in Seymour's
diary. However, where I differ from Alsen is that he *dates* the suicide
attempt to 1941. The diary entries were written in late '41, early '42, and
the line reads, "I gather Muriel was naive enough to tell her where I got
the scars on my wrists, poor sweet baby." There is no indication of *when*
the attempt occurred. The dating is important as Alsen is intent from the
word go to construct a chronology of events in Seymour's life that reflect
Alsen's interpretation that Seymour from 1941 on is on a downward spiral
leading to a perfectly explainable suicide. Alsen's interpretation of
Seymour's statement that he can't discuss the Charlotte Mayhew incident
"over just one drink" as Seymour "now drinks quite a bit" seems to be
stretching matters. And my biggest gripe re the Alsen Chronology is the
statement that "Seymour remains in psychiatric wards of Army hospitals for
most of the last three years of his life." In "A Perfect Day for
Bananafish", the line spoken by Muriel's mother only says,"... it was a
perfect *crime* the Army released him from the hospital...". So, yes,
Seymour in *1948* was in an Army hospital (probably a psychiatric ward), but
we as readers certainly can't say, as Alsen does, that "Seymour remains in
psychiatric wards of Army hospitals for most of the last three years of his
life." Unless I missed it, where do we learn, as Alsen contends, that in
"1945 Seymour, 28, has a nervous breakdown and is treated in an Army
hospital"? What do we *know* about Seymour's last three years? Apart from
what is in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", we know that there is "a
loose-leaf notebook inhabited by a hundred and eighty-four short poems that
my brother wrote during the last *three* [emphasis added] years of his life,
both in and out of the Army, but mostly in, well in." Unless one interprets
"mostly in, well in" as in Alsen's psychiatric wards (and, gee, what a
provocative thought, that Seymour wrote most of these incredible poems while
occupying a bed in Army psychiatric wards) Alsen has been in a trance of
creative reading. We also know that Seymour flew on an airplane shortly
before his trip to Florida (which inspired the death haiku poem). I can't
think of anything else we know about the last three years of Seymour's life.
Lucy-Ruth,
I had forgotten Zooey's line re "think of what psychoanalysis did for
Seymour". I did recall Seymour's diary line "I more or less promised M. at
the station tonight that I'll go to a psychoanalyst one of these days." So
we now know that Seymour indeed underwent some sort of psychoanalysis at
some point. But now that you have mentioned this, it does give me pause.
Cecilia,
As you can see from the above, I'll still chafing against some of Alsen's
basic premises. I've gotten into his text, and so far feel he is doing an
excellent job in his assessment of the development of Buddy's/Salinger's
"philosophy of composition". But I am not convinced of his connect-the-dots
interpretation of Seymour's "spiritual deterioration". However, as I
haven't as yet reached his analysis of "Hapworth 16, 1924", I'm withholding
any response to that interpretation.
--Bruce
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