[Bananafish] Re: Jim Wants Some Salinger Topics, Dammit

[Michael J ANELLO]

Dear Mr. UA,
 
If you are going to an American college, you've answered a lot of questions for me.  Thank you.  Try 'Confederacy of Dunces' next.  I've gained 300 pounds and a mustache since then!
 
To answer your question, yes, I think any element of religion is relevant to Salinger's weavings.  Isn't it all just one religion in Salinger's world?  Aren't we all Jewish, just as much as we are all nuns, just as much as we are all cups of chicken soup?
 
On a lighter note, please, everyone, Jim, read the below passage and see if you have comments on the following two questions:
 
1. Do you think Seymour commit Seppuku?
2. How would Seppuku tie into the message you think Salinger wanted to get across, pertaining to Seymour committing suicide...
 
"Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it
was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate
shame.  The main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor.
 It could take place with preparation and ritual in the privacy of one's
home, or speedily in a quiet corner of a battlefield while one's
comrades kept the enemy at bay.  In the world of the warrior, seppuku
was a deed of bravery that was admirable in a samurai who knew he was
defeated, disgraced, or mortally wounded.  It meant that he could end
his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not
merely intact but actually enhanced.  The warrior would prepare for
death by writing a death poem."
 
-Mike

>>> theurbanentropy at hotmail.com 5/1/2006 7:53 PM >>>
hello to all...
I dwindled to this site while I searched for Glass stories (haven't we 
all...) which I figured might have leaked to the voracious virtual 
community...no luck there I guess. I think I'm suffering from 
post-franny-and-zooey state...I've incessantly looked through 
pages,collecting sentences as if the very frail state of Franny herself 
depended on it, and I've somehow come to think that I would very much like 
to bring Zooey and Franny to have a coffe..only we wouldn't be able to 
smoke, which would be quite a dilemma for the sadistic nicotine trio, and I 
would have to inform mr.invisible salinger on the brunch date. I don't think 
he'd give his blessing, much less copyrights.
Anyway, the symptons are summoning a salinger hookup, which..I fear, is a 
happy distraction that will put an end to my college studies, directed in 
the very direction opposite to guiltless salinger fielding. I happen to 
study buisness, and I also happen to be quite ridiculously awful at it.
To the serious stuff..to the salinger veterans..a questions to work up my 
appetite:
- I've read some essays, and it seems that the Jewish element is interpreted 
as some sort of "void" character in the novel...I personally believe that 
unless you are Potok and a few other similar literary personalities, there 
is not explicit need to envelop the "jewness" of the Glass family simply 
because we are talking upper-west-side-building-with-a-doorman-slang..I find 
it would be an unnecesary contour to an already rich landscape. They (ah! 
the evil academic "they"!) even hinted that Bloomberg is the only real jew! 
To you all brave and bold...do you think the jewish element is relevant?

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