Well, while waiting for Middlesex (snicker - I just capitalized it MiddleSex) to be pitched on my doorstep as does not befit a Pulitzer-prize-winning novel, I looked for another book. I read the prologue to The Time Traveler's Wife. And then the first few pages of a chapter.
"Well, this didn't win a Pulitzer," I sniffed, with that tone I have.
Then I remembered that Gary bought a copy of Nine Stories nine months ago.
Then I remembered the conversation we had when he started reading it. He appeared in the doorway and announced:
"This Nine Stories book is really good!"
"Well, duh," I said, in that tone I have.
"You should read it!"
"I read it years ago, darling," I drawled as I languorously painted my toenails. With great care I daubed the tiny lacquer brush into the corners of my big toe, taking pains to distribute the red polish evenly across the nail. "I read it in college. It was during that semester I took all survey courses and read sixty books."
"Are you sure? I can't believe you didn't keep a copy."
"Of course I'm sure. That's the one where Seymour Glass makes friends with the girl on the beach and she keeps saying 'Can you see more glass?'"
"That's the first story! The one about the pedophile."
"Pedophile?" I asked sharply, suspending the lacquer brush above my toe. I looked at Gary, my face expressing both bemusement and contempt. "He isn't a pedophile. There's no pedophilia in Nine Stories."
"Yuh-huh."
I sighed dramatically. "He's just friends with the little girl."
Gary clutched his head and left.
I forgot our exchange until I rooted up Nine Stories to fill in the gap before Middlesex arrived.The suggestion that Seymour Glass might be a pedophile came back to me as I read the first story, 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish.' Here is a quote:
'A bananafish,' he said, and undid the belt of his robe. He folded the robe, first lengthwise, then in thirds. He unrolled the towel he had used over his eyes, spread it out on the sand, peeled off the t-shirt that read 'I'm a Pedophile!' and draped it over his narrow shoulders.
Well, it doesn't say that exactly but my God I am a moron. (She said languidly, raising her glass of Scotch to view the computer screen through its golden contents. That is, if Scotch is indeed golden; I have no idea.)
I was shaken that I remembered the first story so distinctly. I even remember my reaction at the end of the story: shock. "Huh! Why would Seymour shoot himself in the head? Well, his wife was vacuous. Next story. Eight more to go!"
Though my confidence was shaken, I decided I should read the next story, 'Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut,' which contains no pedophilia. I also looked closely for lesbianism or something else I would have missed in college. Straightforward. Whew.
Encouraged, I (languidly) moved on to "Just Before the War with the Eskimos." And now, I am truly screwed up. What? The Hell? I can't believe my thin interpretation is accurate: the main female character leaves her friend's house with a new point of view about the friend's home life, or a crush on the brother, or that special kind of crush young girls get on homosexuals such as the brother's friend. There were no adults, so no pedophilia. Still, I have the strong feeling there's something I'm missing.
Seriously, I'm pretty shaken up. I don't know if I can read Middlesex after this.
What?! What?! Seymour Glass was a pedophile? And all these years, I thought he was just overwhelmed by the failed trajectory of his life.
Oh, no. No. And "Uncle Wiggily"... Well, what about "For Esme, with Love and Squalor"? Yikes! Another pedophile?
Hey - JD Salinger was shacking up with Joyce Maynard when she was about twelve.
Oh. This is too much for this innocent English major to cope with.
Posted by: Becs | February 14, 2007 at 05:30 AM
Yeah, yeah, yeah Becs. And Jerry Lee Lewis married his 14-year-old cousin. Creative people do weird things.
BTW, Scotch is amberish. If you want golden, try a good Chardonnay. Or lemonade.
Posted by: Friend #2 | February 14, 2007 at 09:11 PM
Becs- Mom told me not only about Joyce M but also about some odd deflowering thing he had going on. I don't remember the details. Didn't some woman he lived with finally write a book spilling all the secrets of the notorious recluse?
Libby - have you been reading this by John Stossel? http://www.nysun.com/article/36394
Posted by: TheQueen | February 14, 2007 at 11:45 PM
your writerly affectations are distracting
Posted by: | June 03, 2007 at 01:40 PM
I looked up "writerly", sir or madam, and am unfamiliar with this term. Would you be so kind as to illuminate me?
Posted by: Friend #3 | June 03, 2007 at 07:11 PM
I am proud of my writerly affectations, you, and I strive to make my speakerly affectations and behaviorly affectations equal them.
Posted by: TheQueen | June 04, 2007 at 12:20 AM
Umm..you didn't "miss" anything. Seymour WASN'T a pedophile.
Posted by: ffff | February 19, 2009 at 04:03 AM
ffff (Hi, ffff, if that is your real name) - Have you read The Bright Forever? What are your views on Mr. Dees?
Posted by: TheQueen | February 19, 2009 at 11:31 PM
why are there two different people called "the queen"
Posted by: john | December 10, 2009 at 05:08 PM
John - Thank you for asking. There's just me, but I was logged in differently the two times I commented.
Posted by: TheQueen | December 10, 2009 at 08:52 PM
I don't think the pedophile reading is that far off. It was the first thing I thought of when I read this story. Although he may have never acted on his impulses, his time on the beach with Sybil shows him that his ability to restrain himself is limited. He kills himself before he can destroy the innocence of a young girl. Further evidence is found in another of Salinger's stories, when it's said that Seymour marries Muriel because of her similar appearance to a young girl with whom Seymour was once in love. I'm surprised this interpretation isn't given more weight.
Posted by: Adam | January 28, 2010 at 10:41 PM
Adam - hm. It tends to cause a very violent reaction in a lot of people. You do know JDS died today. Sad. Though gaoo posted a link to a very funny Onion parody:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_j_d
Posted by: TheQueen | January 28, 2010 at 11:06 PM
I was in my 30s when I first read the story, but it never occurred to me that Seymour's interaction with the girl was entirely innocent. I hesitate to call him a pedophile, an ugly word and concept, but I do think that he had desires he didn't know what to do with, be they passing or all-encompassing. As is apparent by all the Glass family stories, it was also the age of the psychotherapist, which was all about cruelly defining people by their torrid internal thoughts.
I know that theory is dismissed, but, really people. What do you think a "bananafish" is? Why do you think she saw one (and only one) under the water right around the time he kissed the arch of her foot?
I feel bad for Seymour. I don't know how much better we are now, but I am confident that there wasn't much room for unsavory thoughts, passing or not, in that day and age. I think many of us are a little more prepared for the messiness of desire now than then. Poor Seymour.
:-(
(P.S. Nice post. I liked it.)
Posted by: Joel | February 13, 2011 at 07:19 PM
Joel - there's a book with similar desires: The Bright Forever. Lovely story. Should have won the Pulitizer over Oscar Wao, I think.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 13, 2011 at 11:43 PM