Thursday, September 6, 2012
Bananafish Revolution: Homework for the Weekend
Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers "Bananafish Revolution" from Palestra Creative on Vimeo.
Listen to this song by Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers. She was asked to write a song inspired by one of Salinger's Nine Stories, and this is what she created.
What does she get right in this song? What does she get wrong? What effect do the lyrics create? Consider the instrumentation and sound of her voice as well. Feel free to bring up other ideas as well.
Create a thread (commenting on each other off of this post), but if you have a completely separate idea about the song, feel free to start a new post.
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My favorite line is: “I’m not a child and I don’t like reminding myself…all the time.” It seems that Seymour likes talking to Sybil and remains distant from his wife. I think he wants to be a child again and forget about his responsibilities as an adult. Seymour saw a lot in the war and that’s why his wife and mother in law are worried about him. He keeps his distance by relaxing on the beach alone and “In the Ocean Room, playing the piano” (7). He likes the company of children and maybe he wishes he could go back to a time when he was still an innocent child.
ReplyDeleteThe song has a line about the piano in the story, but I think it would have been interesting if the creators of the song had decided to have a piano playing in the background.
Sorry if the page number above was incorrect, I have a different copy of our book.
I agree. I think Seymour wants to go back to his childhood when he was innocent. He obviously saw some terrible things while he was in the war and his innocence has been shattered. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Seymour doesn't give his wife any attention but he spends so much time with Sybil. He even "picked up one of Sybil's wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch" (17). He doesn't seem to be giving his wife any kisses, but he gives a four-year-old a kiss on the foot. He is clearly trying to become a child and hide from all of his terrible memories. This relates to A Separate Peace (sorry it would't underline) when Gene tries to hide from his bad memories. Gene finds that he can't hide from the past and he eventually snaps. When Seymour tries to hide from his past he snaps too. Of course, Gene doesn't kill himself like Seymour does.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Luisa's comment about the piano, though. I think that the song does a really good job of capturing the emotions of the story.
I agree with the points that Lydia and Luisa made. I also believe that Seymour's experience in the war has basically tramatized him. Mrs. Glass's parents, especially her mother, know that Seymour could explode at any moment. For this reason, they both want her to go home. In Bananafish Revolution, the line, "It's a perfect day for dying, it's a perfect day for them to start crying" is a very negative thought. For Seymour to think that it is a good day to die, it definitely shows that the war was very disturbing for him and changed his outlook on life since he ends up committing suicide. The song overall has a very slow and sad feeling to it, which expresses the tone of the story very well.
DeleteGoing from what Lydia said about kissing feet, does anyone think that feet played some role in Seymour's suicide? I may be looking into this too much, but I thought it strange that Salinger kept mentioning feet and ankles.
DeleteExamples:
"'Not in my face, baby,' the young man said, putting his hand on Sybil's ankle." (16)
"He reached in front of him and took both of Sybil's ankles in his hands." (18)
"Sybil released her foot." (20)
"He took Sybil's ankles in his hands and pressed down and forward." (24)
"The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil's wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch." (24)
Then, on page 25, Seymour accuses a woman in the elevator of looking at his feet, to which she denies and says that she was merely looking at the floor. I agree with Lydia that Seymour was trying to become a child when he kissed Sybil's foot. I also wonder if the woman's answer in the elevator played a role in Seymour's suicide...
While I was reading the story I didn't get a slow and sad feeling up until the end when we know Seymour isn't well and he kills himself. I think the constant conversation between Muriel and her mom, and also Seymour and Sybil keeps the story upbeat and seemingly normal. I think the artist choosing to change "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" to "A Perfect Day for Dying" brings a more depressing feeling to the book and song. In the book, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" wasn't a bad thing--it was a way for Seymour to escape reality and like Luisa and Lydia said, become innocent again. I feel changing the mood in the song to dying instead of a happy day at the beach doesn't convey how I felt reading it.
ReplyDeleteI think your comment about the upbeat feeling of the story until the end is true. I was really surprised at the end when Seymour shot himself. One idea for the song would be to have it more upbeat until the end for that same element of surprise. This is because, to me, the surprise was the most important part. The surprise shows how depression isn't always clear.
DeleteI agree with Shira that the mood of the song seemed a bit darker than the mood of the story, while Seymour is obviously a "tortured soul" of sorts, as is conveyed by the song, the reader only sees him immersed in his world of juvenescence where he seems younger and more innocent than the song portrays him.
ReplyDeleteI also like Louisa's idea of having a piano playing in the background because the piano seems to act as some sort of an emotional escape for Seymour which is what I think he was trying to achieve by killing himself.
I disagree with the singers interpretation of the story when she sings "It's a perfect day for dying. It's a perfect day for them to start crying" because this sounds to me like someone killing themselves to punish others (the "them" referred to in the lyrics) while I think Seymour took his life not to punish his wife or the people who scarred him, but rather to escape the confines of his traumatized mind.
I actually think the somber mood of the song fits the story in its entirety perfectly. Even in the beginning of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," I felt the story was far from upbeat. The conversation between Muriel and her mother was completely depressing; the relationship felt superficial and thoughtless on both sides. Her mother's worry seemed more focused on how Muriel's problems might affect herself than on Muriel and Seymour as people. Muriel seemed all too willing to push Seymour to the back of her mind, masquerading as a patient and supportive wife helping her husband along in "tough times" while in reality leaving him to his own devices.
ReplyDeleteI didn't agree with the lyric "It's a perfect day for dying. It's a perfect day for them to start crying." I agree with Becca that the word choice makes it sound like Seymour is planning to punish his wife and the other people in his life. I think that his decision to kill himself is completely separated from the repercussions it might have on others. Also, I think the suicide was less planned than it was a spontaneous result of playing the piano, catching bananafish etc. The words "perfect day for dying" makes it sound like Seymour chose the perfect day to kill himself while I think it was much more of a rush of "I've had enough" on Seymour's part.
I do agree with Lina and Becca that he wasn't really planning to kill himself or hurt anyone, but I think the fact that the song doesn't make much sense also speaks to the fact that Seymour doesn't make much sense. Kind of abstract, but hopefully the idea makes sense.
DeleteAlso, I think that the song being in a minor key with repetitive chord progressions could represent Seymour's view of the world through his mind. He sees everything as tedious and he's basically in denial that he is messed up. But, on the other hand, the song isn't the saddest I've heard, which could show that there is some twisted or far-off joy still left in Seymour's mind.
In the song "Bananafish Revolution", one line that I feel everyone is commenting on is "It's a perfect day for dying". I believe these words are very appropriate. Sybil asks Seymour what happens when the bananafish can't get out of the banana hole. "Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die...they get banana fever." (Salinger 23) I feel that Seymour is talking about his own illness and how it will determine his fate just as banana fever takes the life of the bananafish. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "A perfect day for dying" is the same day as both the fish and Seymour meet their end.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering is anyone saw a sort of parallel between the bananafish and Seymour. The bananafish goes into the hole and acts like a pig just like Seymour went into the war and possibly acted like a pig. Then, both Seymour and the bananafish can’t get back out of the hole, in Seymour’s case back into civilian life.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t like that the line “A perfect day for bananafish” was changed to “A perfect day for dying” because it makes it seem as though Seymour had already decided to commit suicide before the story even focuses on him. I think he only decides to kill himself after his awkward interactions with both Sybil and the lady on the elevator. I think it is after these interactions that Seymour starts to believe that he can no longer fit back into civilian life and go back through the “bananahole”
Anyone notice the connection between the float that Sybil was using in the water and Seymour? The story says, "You're right. It needs more air than I'm willing to admit" (17). This could mean that Seymour needs more help than he's willing to admit. Also, after the Bananafish incident, the float is deflated, cumbersome, and soggy, just like after the war, Seymour was worn out and kind of went crazy. In the song, the like about not being a child anymore is also connected to this, because he wishes his life could go back to the way it was.
ReplyDeleteWhen i finished reading the story, i looked back and as Jen said, i did a see a parallel between Seymour and the bananafish he told Sybil about which made me start to think, was his suicide at the end of the short story planed before he was on the beach with Sybil, or due to the heartless encounter with the lady in the elevator?
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did think that Samantha took a cynical and direct turn on the story. I thought of this immediately after hearing the verse, “its a perfect day for dying,” when in the story Seymour mentioned it was a perfect day for bananafish. The melancholy tune of the song regardless of the lyrics also made it depressing. Regardless, much of the lyrics didn’t make much sense to me.