Salinger's still alive, so weird, he must know everything by now

I just finished reading Seymour: An Introduction again (why do I keep re-reading my old favorite books instead of new ones? Is that what happens when you get old and disillusioned? I don't have the energy to read the new ones...I read like I'm channel-surfing and skip ahead to the good parts-which I've never done before-and then don't even find them good).

I have the same questions about it:

Why does Buddy think it's a good idea to spend however many pages he spends describing Seymour's physical characteristics? This is so boring to me-I have to skim. I like my characters fuzzy. All I got out of it is wiry black hair and good hands.

I guess he's just building up an aura around Seymour, which tends to convince me that there's a whole lot of as of yet unpublished Glass family stuff, because something must eventually be done with this aura he's made for us.

I'm also half convinced that the Glass family are Salinger's imaginary friends, for real, like Enoch Robinson's in Winesburg, Ohio.

What, in fact, is the point of Seymour: An Introduction in general? It doesn't introduce half as well as Raise the Roofbeams, or Bananafish, or anything else. The only point I can think of would be either to a) introduce Buddy, b) to send latent messages to English majors not to leave tire tracks in Salinger's rose garden, or c) merely to beam.

And it is a pretty cheap trick to introduce Seymour to us on the day of his death (in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"), kill him off, and then eulogize him forever after in the rest of your writing. How sad. And enticing. Most of the time we'd all rather remember than live, even in books, and even if they aren't our own memories.

Isn't it interesting that Salinger writes as Buddy, but is still so convincing as Seymour, when Buddy reproduces Seymour's letters and notes? Couldn't ole' Salinger have just realllly concentrated and narrated as the Seymour-Oracle person? Buddy's alright and all, but he's so the extremely self-conscious and hesitating and bombastic writer, he's so... well, everyone I know. Couldn't Salinger have just hit the delete button, deleted all of himself away, and kept only the Seymour-like bits of enlightenment? (I know, the answer is no, then Seymour would get boring, too.)

And: how come I never get to hear anything about Boo Boo? I'm pretty sure she's the cool one.




Side note: Have you ever met anyone over the age of 30 who likes Salinger?