Re: Touching
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 09:57:52 -0700
I haven't read "Hapworth" cover to cover since 1974. I have dipped into it
this year. Here goes:
I agree re the tantalizing start to Hapworth. (And imagine how Buddy (of
"Zooey" and SAI) is holding himself back to keep *his* words to the few that
appear.) And its import really gets going when midway into H. Seymour has
his double vision: first, of going to one of the "most pregnant and
important parties" where the overweight man makes them [Les, Bessie, Seymour
and Buddy] a business and career offer. Surely this is the beginning of
"It's a Wise Child." (Yes?) Then comes the vision of Buddy writing about
that very party, a mature Buddy at a "very large, jet-black, very moving,
gorgeous typewriter" in a room that has "all his youthful dreams realized to
the full."
Skipping way ahead (but linking it to the above): I always had a strange
feeling when I got to the very, very end of Hapworth when I encountered the
sentence: "Also worth keeping in mind, it is this chap's leonine devotion
to his literary implements, I give you my word of honor, that will be the
eventual cause of his utter release, with honor and happiness, from this
enchanting vale of tears, laughter, redeeming human love, affection and
courtesy." I assume the enchanting vale is "life"; but, even today, I can
never get the idea out of my mind that it is also "writing." "Utter release
... from" writing. As Camille says, it is as if JDS knew this was the
last time around, at least publicly. I think I said earlier to the list (or
perhaps it was off-list to will, don't remember), that if JDS wants to truly
salute the new millennium, what better way than have Orchises put out
Hapworth *coupled with* the party story Buddy is working on when Bessie
sends up Seymour's letter.
Odds and ends:
The 10,000 words in "the wrong voice" is to underscore the growth of the
Seymour character--from Hapworth to that as depicted in RHTRBC, Z, and SAI.
That he just wasn't born "perfect," that there was a struggle to get to
those 184 haikus, and the realization that "all we do our whole lives is go
from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next."
I really like the Mrs. Happy involvement.
I think the sketching of "camp life" quite good.
The repeated return to the human heart is crucial. Many splendid statements
here.
The endless book list: first time I read it I loved it. Tried to follow up
on some. Now, at this late stage in the game, my *own* book list gives the
circles under my eyes a fright.
Gee, this business about writers hating/fearing other writers. I would
think just the opposite. In this absurd world, one is grateful to meet
others engaged in the struggle to put squiggles on the page. In fact, I
*married* a writer. Regarding the question or identity of A Real Writer:
If I *had* to guess, one hundred years from now, the bananafish most likely
still to be read, it would be that eleven-year-old lurker, gender unknown.
And, to close, quoting Seymour quoting Tsiang Samdup: "Silence! Go forth,
but tell no man!"
--Bruce