[Bananafish] Roots of the ever ...

[Puebloshalom at cs.com]

Jim R., I was reading a book, written for castizos - our castizos,  and it 
quoted Unamuno speaking of the anima hispanica and it lead to a whole chain of 
thoughts, bear with me, that lead me to think of Seymour's last elevator ride.

I usually read 2 to 4 or 5 books at the same time, both fiction and 
non-fiction.  And in one of my readings, I can't remember since there were odd and 
unexpected overlaps, it talked about the seraphim and their many wings and how a 
pair covered the feet.  This was explained as an act of humilty before God, a 
god, to portray the unworthy downward cast eyes of the servant, student, 
worshipper.  I remembered Seymour's upward ride in the elevator (it was upward?) and 
his annoyance at his feet being stared at.  Maybe a good honest stair in the 
eyes by his fellow passengers might have broken his nerve to end his life.  
The downward directed eyes of his fellow travellers only reinforced his 
apple-laden conclusion that he was not (at least yet) worthy of all this awe directed 
at him.  It started with wise children and was quickly becoming catholic.  He 
was a different kind of messiah, one who only came for himself, and leaving 
Buddy, Boo Boo, Franny, Zooey behind was unbearable and continuing to bear them 
was unbearable.

I don't know but I suspect that is not what Jerome intended, but linking the 
later superlative Glass saga to Seymour through a self inflicted death makes 
it seem so.  All those Bananas that Seymour gorged himself with had Names like 
Walt, Boo Boo, Franny, Zooey, and Buddy.  Instead of the disciples consuming 
the flesh and blood of their deliverer, this deliverer consumed his offspring 
and become an anti-messiah.  Which makes the whole Glass thing very modern 
after all.

Daniel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bway.net/pipermail/bananafish/attachments/20070213/5bcb6e2a/attachment.html