Re: Teddy = parts of Seymour
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Mon, 20 Sep 1999 08:44:46 -0700
Sonny's last two paragraphs of his first post with this subject line are
koans in and of themselves; or, more apt, late 20th century Vedas. Can't
really "reply"; will attempt to mull them over for ...
But I would like to say (and please forgive me, those of you who are staunch
Teddy fans), in regards to this question of Teddy being based on Seymour,
or, as Camille originally phrased it ( which got this thread rolling), "that
Teddy is a fictionalised portrait of Seymour"--
Teddy *almost* strikes me as a very young yuppie God-seeker, while Seymour
is the blue-striped unicorn poet God-knower. [ I think one should attempt to
resist conflating all of JDS's characters into one; it only puts one in a
somewhat similar camp with Mary McCarthy in her damning review--and the one
reportedly that upset JDS the most--of Franny and Zooey, "...who are these
wonder kids but Salinger himself, splitting and multiplying like the
original amoeba...to be confronted with the seven faces of Salinger..."]