The Sound of One Hand Clapping
"We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?" This starts Salinger's collection Nine Stories. We talked about it a little in class, but only in the context of it being a Zen Koan and relating it to the Vedanta and Buddhism in Teddy. However, I think it is an interesting concept to explore. We can't circumvent this issue by hitting our hand on a surface and call it one hand clapping: the gist of the koan is to show how we can't do much without something else. In other words, everything is dual (at the least). Salinger must have chosen this koan to be his epigraph for a reason. Maybe he just found it cool, but I don't think Salinger was that loose about his writing (he was known for his somewhat obsessive regiment, consisting of many panned house of
I believe this is how Salinger chose to write many of the stories in Nine Stories. Almost all of them can be broken down into two main characters (or entities), like in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" (Eloise and Mary Jane). Or if they cannot, they can be broken down into two pairs, like "Laughing Man"(the Comanches/Laughing Man and Chief/Mary) or "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"(Muriel/her mother and Seymour/Sybil). The only large exception to this is "Teddy", but interactions still happen between two or three people. All of these examples are simply to showcase the emphasis on duality through the collection.
Another example of this kind of duality comes in "For Esme with Love and Squalor". The story can be broken into two parts in terms of narration style: one where the narrator speaks in first person and another where the narrator is third person and focuses on a Sgt. X.
If we were to imagine any of these stories without their duality, they wouldn't have too much point. "Laughing Man" without Laughing Man wouldn't be much of a story. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" wouldn't mention bananafish if Sybil wasn't there. "For Esme with Love and Squalor" wouldn't be as iconic without the famous part on Sgt. X. Ifs this the sound of one hand clapping?
I believe this is how Salinger chose to write many of the stories in Nine Stories. Almost all of them can be broken down into two main characters (or entities), like in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" (Eloise and Mary Jane). Or if they cannot, they can be broken down into two pairs, like "Laughing Man"(the Comanches/Laughing Man and Chief/Mary) or "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"(Muriel/her mother and Seymour/Sybil). The only large exception to this is "Teddy", but interactions still happen between two or three people. All of these examples are simply to showcase the emphasis on duality through the collection.
Another example of this kind of duality comes in "For Esme with Love and Squalor". The story can be broken into two parts in terms of narration style: one where the narrator speaks in first person and another where the narrator is third person and focuses on a Sgt. X.
If we were to imagine any of these stories without their duality, they wouldn't have too much point. "Laughing Man" without Laughing Man wouldn't be much of a story. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" wouldn't mention bananafish if Sybil wasn't there. "For Esme with Love and Squalor" wouldn't be as iconic without the famous part on Sgt. X. Ifs this the sound of one hand clapping?
I was also intrigued by the "one hand clapping" line, and it was really interesting to hear your insight on what it might mean. I think duality is a really important part of Salinger's stories, as well as being a useful device for writing in general. Stories that have a dualistic element are extremely versatile and seem to tailor well to the short story genre. Great post!
ReplyDeleteEven though we discussed the introduction (in some depth), I totally missed this idea of duality and dependence on one another. Now that you point it out, I definitely think it exists and is a prominent theme throughout his stories. The biggest example I thought of, its actually one of the themes we have discussed in the greatest detail. Salinger presents the ideal nature of childhood in its purity and innocence and contrasts it to the phoniness and harshness of the adult world. Just like you said, two things that wouldn't work without each other, neatly woven into Salinger's stories.
ReplyDeleteI think there is definitely a structure to Salinger's writing. I also noticed that he really likes to talk about themes of struggling and alleviation of struggling, which is basically the topic on which 'teddy' reflects. I personally found some of Salinger's stories kind of unapproachable, perhaps because of the more sort of philosophical/theoretical and less emotionally driven plots. They seemed to be sort of like fables than stories but I wasn't always sure what moral I was supposed to leave with.
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