A perfect day for banana fish

   This story really introduced me to short story Salinger. The previous semester had me reading Catcher in the Rye and learning a bit about the author, but Nine Stories so far has felt foreign. It began with the first story, A Perfect Day for Banana Fish.
   
    The story begins with a girl in her hotel room, waiting for the telephone lines to be freed up. She comes off as very obviously glamorous, with no shortage of adornments, or as it seems suitors ringing her phone. When she begins her call with her mother, the monotone and boredom in "Yes, Mother. How are you?" is almost palpable. She'd been anticipating the call, but very clearly more to get the conversation over with than anything else. Throughout the conversation the girl remains indifferent, just acknowledging her mother's laundry list of concerns while waving them off as mere quirks (not taking off the bathrobe) or irrelevant (the driving in). It appears to be a typical overworrying mother with confident, if naive young adult daughter relationship (one that's also present to a degree in my house).

   The story continues along by the water with the man and a woman named Sybil. They seem to have rather bland conversation, eventually leading to the topic of bananafish, and the tragic ends many face. The dialogue seems rather arbitrary and not terribly interesting, only to be ended with a very strange kissing of a foot. There were two main things I drew from this section: the first being that most of it contributed to a very smooth and unremarkable beginning of the story, and the other being that it was almost a smaller version of the entire Banana Fish story, with the same structure of a unexceptional plot for most of the story with a startling ending.

   That startling ending for the story was of course the ostensibly random outburst to feet-watching and suicide by Seymour, which of course had me scrambling backwards seeing if I had missed some albatross of a detail. None were to be found however, which drastically changed my view on Salinger's short story style. With first ten pages of Banana Fish, the style seemed as humdrum as the plot, but with that finish, it seemed he enjoys more spice in his writing than I had expected.

Differences from Hemingway to O'Brien

    There was a lot of discussion about what seemed to have turned the class away from In Our Time (or at least reduced the fervor from The Things They Carried), and I have quite a few thoughts on the matter, along with other bits on our current readings.

     My biggest difference between the writings is the clearness of character personality. The vast majority of the time it seems O'Brien is simply telling us how characters feel. Characters would say or think exactly how they feel (loving to Martha for example), with deep inside looks on private thoughts (the rest of the Martha saga). There were long dialogues to reveal more character (almost the entirety of Church coming to mind), with a very on the ground, beside the speaker kind of feel to them.

     On the flip side, Hemingway seems to write from a very detached third person view. Basic details of settings or actions seem to form the core of the text, and dialogue is sparse with many subtleties. There's  often the unknown previous tensions we've discussed, which seem nonexistent in O'Brien. This pair of writing features combines to often leave me guessing on what's going underneath character exteriors. Another result of the dialogue style is seemingly drier characters. With only barebone details of what's happening, and short, tension-cut conversations (Cat in the Rain, Hills like White Elephants the poster children) make for less flattering, more flat portrayals.

    All of this can probably be negated by a more attentive and experienced reader. There's a reason Hemingway became a classic American author and it seems to be through more nuanced writing that critics and other complex readers enjoy more. My personal favorite story (or pair) was the final two. It provided a more focused view on a single character, which overcame some of the difficulties in style, and avoided some of the themes I appreciated less in previous chapters (the short stories about failed relationships being most notable).

Assorted thoughts on The Things They Carried

  Generally, The Things They Carried mixes in many stories, with multiple perspectives, varying topics, and a generally somber mood. The last part didn't appeal to me personally, but the other factors still combined to make a compelling read.

   Church was an especially interesting chapter for me. Although the story is still very much based in war, the content itself is about as far as can be. Previously, even with many emphasized battle scenes, the stories were still very much war focused (the things they carried for example, being primarily supplies for battle and survival). Church reveals post war ambitions (Dobbins' want to perhaps become a monk), childhood memories (Dobbins' thoughts on church from a young age through high school), and Kiowa's thoughts on the matter and other religious business. It provides a much more human look at the characters, eschewing their much more generic war banter for typical relatable chatter. Similarly, many of O'Brien's "look backs" (from his forty three year old self) also provide this outside look, that broadens the range of the book.

   In The Field shows the mental devastation a single death can cause. It's a common story to hear of single soldiers wracked by war guilt, but this story shows how such situations can come to be. Character after character takes blame for Kiowa's death (Lieutenant Cross for mispositioning, an unnamed other soldier, Norman Bowker previously). As each of these individuals spreads out after the war, it's easy to imagine how the first occurrence comes to be. It's gripping how these minor failures can cause each man to blame themselves so fully for such a tragic event.

   The Things They Carried seemed almost like a "during" version of Fire and Forget; same mood, same tempo, but with more wartime action as opposed to the postwar content of Fire and Forget. Both were far more serious subject matter than I had expected when reading the title of the course, but the somewhat lighter Fire and Forget was a good stepping stone for The Things They Carried.