A Perfect Day for Bananafish...errr...Blogging

Well, I have been wanting to start a blog, but have been putting it off (and putting it off and putting it off) because a) I fear committment, b) I fear writing, and c) I fear the consequences of committing to my writing. However, since I have convinced myself that a regular blog might possibly improve not only the content but the speed of my writing, here we both are. You and me, that is. The blog, as it stands, is not alive. Yet.

So, what, you ask, will be the topic of this blog? I'm not really sure as a matter of fact. I have a hazy idea which consists of: catalogs of my many insecurities and obsessions, first-person accounts of my family relationships (preliminary title: "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"), sarcastic comments, bizarre incidents (of which I have more than my fair share), random interests (such as updates on the impending Giant Squid Invasion and the impending Class 4 Zombie Invasion), and general ridiculousness. Hazy, yes, though hopefully, at no time boring.

But why the reference to the Salinger story, you ask? First and foremost, I remember reading it in my junior year of high school (before Nirvana smelled Teen Spirit and before Google answered Everything I've Always Wanted to Know About Sex) and thinking that there was something...wrong/off about it. To name a few things: Muriel lacquers her nails red in a white dressing gown, Seymour grabs ahold of Sybil by the ankle(s), Muriel is "badly sunburned" despite having used sunscreen, Mrs. Carpenter dresses her prepubescent daughter in a yellow bikini and calls her "pussy," and Sybil, we find out, like to chew candles (This is all before we find out that bananafish like to gorge themselves to death and the main character commits suicide.). The story is jam packed with strange imagery....so David Lynchian (which is probably why I like(d) it).

Major downer of a story, am I right? (I've included a link, just in case. Click on my blog title and see! Oooo! Technology!) BUT (the point is coming soon, I promise), it just so happens that I read the attached Newsweek article wherein the author proposes that we are "a culture of liars" and it made me.....THINK. Since I try not to think on a regular basis, I was naturally deeply, deeply disturbed. And since I've made liars and the subject of lying a hobby of mine, I couldn't help but agree with the author.

I reread Salinger's story today because it was the first thing that I thought of after I read the Newsweek thingy. BUT WHY, you ask? Well, I suspect it's because Salinger's story is full of liars (until now, I had never thought of it like that)--you could just as easily call them "active pretenders" as well, though Bennett's article does use the horrible "L" word. So we are all deceiving each other, according to Salinger and Bennett? Life is deception? Why....yes, yes it is...alot of the time.

In fact, I've just deceived you into reading this blog (if you have read it this far, then you MUST be bored by now--see, I lied eariler when I said you wouldn't be) which is really about....well, nothing really. Gotcha!!