Artsy6 supplies quotes condemning "analysis": - Too often new ideas are studied and analyzed until they are suffocated. -- William Pollard
> - Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more. -- Henri Frederic Amiel William responds: "This just proves that if something is said with enough judgmental hubris, anything can be asserted or denied." I'm with William on this, and I'd supplement his comment by noting that the memorability and ostensible strength of judgments -- especially condemnations -- is increased by making them categoric, avoiding all qualifications. And that very often results in silliness. I do agreee that the kind of analysis behind the Salinger "Study Questions & Essay Topics" (I reprint them below) is misplaced, destructive, as it often is in "Appreciation of Literature", but I've also read countless essays about writers and writing that were absorbing and illuminating. A blanket dismissal of, say, musicology or all literary criticism or dramaturgy because it's only "analysis" is absurd. In theater, a gifted director's analysis and suggestions can be the difference between success and failure. Without Elia Kazan's insights, we wouldn't DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Without Maxwell Perkins we wouldn't have THE GREAT GATSBY. Granted, some "analysis" is fatuous and vitiates joy, but, incomplete though his analysis may be, would any of us prefer that Aristotle had not written his POETICS? -- Cheerskep Study Questions & Essay Topics Discuss the theme of creation and destruction. Which does Franny want out of people? Does she herself create or destroy? What does the Fat Lady represent? How is she both "everybody" and "Jesus Christ"? How have the Glass children been affected by having been child stars? On Seymour and Buddy's wall, Zooey reads, "God instructs the heart, not by ideas but by paints and contradictions." What significance does this quotation have to the story? Is the "Zooey" section a tale of mysticism or a love story? Also discuss how it might have been the one you do not pick. Why is it important that Buddy Glass narrates "Zooey"? Why didn't Salinger just start it with Zooey in the bathtub? Explain the "Jesus prayer" and why Franny wants to try it.
