Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction Writing and Literature Quotes Page 3
Citations follow this format: (Story.Section.Paragraph)
| Quote #7 I read and reread the quotation, and then I sat down on the edge of the bathtub and opened Seymour's diary. ("Roof Beam" 3.28) |
It's almost as though the quotation written by Boo Boo functions as an epigraph for Buddy's reading of the diary.
| Quote #8 My original plans for this general space were to write a short story about Seymour and to call it 'SEYMOUR ONE', with the big 'ONE' serving as a built-in convenience to me, Buddy Glass, even more than to the reader - a helpful, flashy reminder that other stories (a Seymour Two, Three, and possibly Four) would logically have to follow. Those plans no longer exist. ("Seymour" 1.4) |
This reveals the way Salinger has been writing about Seymour – not in an organized or linear fashion (though this may have been the original plan), but instead in fragmented and complementary pieces.
| Quote #9 I'm anything but a short-story writer where my brother is concerned. What I am, I think, is a thesaurus of undetached prefatory remarks about him. I believe I essentially remain what I've almost always been - a narrator, but one with extremely pressing personal needs. I want to introduce, I want to describe, I want to distribute mementos, amulets, I want to break out my wallet and pass around snapshots, I want to follow my nose. In this mood, I don't dare go anywhere near the short-story form it eats up fat little undetached writers like me whole. ("Seymour" 1.4) |
This sums up "Seymour: an Introduction" in a very Salinger-esque nutshell. This is the form that the narrative takes. Is there, perhaps, the very rigid bones of a narrative structure lurking underneath this façade of spontaneity?
