[Bananafish] Nine Stories

Thu Oct 19 12:44:46 EDT 2006

James, I'm not sure if you read my original response.
In it, I said that "Pretty Mouth" was situated in the collection out of time 
and it's placement was the major drawback of placing the stories in the 
order they were published. It also mentioned "Teddy" as being included in 
the collection before Salinger had actually finished the story. The 
implications of that little maneaver should be obvious. Regardless of its 
ending, "Teddy" is a statement of faith - and there is no faith without 
hope.
I think that Salinger paints "painful, blunt stupidity" as being an 
infection of the world that we live in and the challange of his characters 
is to connect with their own humanity (and maybe some dignity, while they're 
at it) despite it. Those that manage to find value in this silly world often 
blunder their way to that place. But I think we should evaluate these 
characters on the basis of how we leave them rather than the way they 
stumble about. Are they better off at the story's end than they were at the 
begining? If so, it's a clear message of hope and we can forgive Boo Boo and 
Lionel and Sergeant X and Esme and even Ginnie Mannox and John Smith for 
having to locate hope rather than calmly posessing it from the begining 
because they are mystic-savants.

Kenneth

----- Original Message ----- 
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Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 12:00 PM
Subject: bananafish Digest, Vol 27, Issue 7

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Re: Nine stories (Kenneth)
>   2. Re: Nine stories (James Rovira)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:59:27 -0400
> From: "Kenneth" <kenny2 at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Bananafish] Nine stories
> To: <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
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> Wenke's an ass. Of course there's a pliable interconnection between the 
> nine
> stories, they were written by the same author in a relatively short space 
> of
> time. The nine stories show a transformation of philosophy as Salinger 
> moved
> from despondancy to hope.
> Now, forget "Blue Melody." Imagine that Salinger had included "A Girl I
> Knew" in Nine Stories. By any account, chronologically or by publicarion
> date, it would have been the first story in the book and everyone would 
> have
> interpreted "Bananafish" in light of "A Girl I Knew."
> Salinger was correct to leave that story out of the collection. It was
> either "A Girl I Knew" or "Bananafish."
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <bananafish-request at lists.bway.net>
> To: <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:00 PM
> Subject: bananafish Digest, Vol 27, Issue 6
>
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>>   1. Re: Nine stories (Esme Four)
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>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> Message: 1
>> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
>> From: Esme Four <esme4 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Bananafish] Nine stories
>> To: bananafish list <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
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>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
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>>
>> A quick visit to John Wenke's book on Salinger's short
>> fiction (i'm in the library anyway...)  makes the
>> issue muddier because Wenke says that Nine Stories
>> does not "impose the fiction of completed wholeness"
>> but he does see some "interconnectedness" between the
>> stories. I think he's suggesting there's a middle
>> ground where stories play with each other but don't
>> work like a novel. Also, Wenke says that Salinger
>> chose the stories "he wished to stand on" and omitted
>> stories ("Blue Melody," "A Girl I Knew") that
>> chronologically could have been included.
>>
>> Ez
>>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:26:11 -0400
> From: "James Rovira" <jamesrovira at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Bananafish] Nine stories
> To: "bananafish list" <bananafish at lists.bway.net>
> Message-ID:
> <411af8540610181626g5b71aa8fw98f0a7f13f732840 at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> Transformation to hope?  Where does Pretty Mouth fit in with that?
> One of the most cynical short stories I've ever read.  How about
> Teddy's death at the end and the painful, blunt stupidity of pretty
> much every character but Teddy?
>
> Jim R
>
> On 10/18/06, Kenneth <kenny2 at verizon.net> wrote:
>> Wenke's an ass. Of course there's a pliable interconnection between the 
>> nine
>> stories, they were written by the same author in a relatively short space 
>> of
>> time. The nine stories show a transformation of philosophy as Salinger 
>> moved
>> from despondancy to hope.
>> Now, forget "Blue Melody." Imagine that Salinger had included "A Girl I
>> Knew" in Nine Stories. By any account, chronologically or by publicarion
>> date, it would have been the first story in the book and everyone would 
>> have
>> interpreted "Bananafish" in light of "A Girl I Knew."
>> Salinger was correct to leave that story out of the collection. It was
>> either "A Girl I Knew" or "Bananafish."
>
>
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