I looked up information on J.D. Salinger's time after the war, when he developed strong Buddhist beliefs. After talking a lot about the "one hand clapping" koan and the connection with the orange peels and the sound of a tree falling, I thought more about what Salinger was trying to show in Teddy. I mentioned in the harkness that Teddy's thoughts on the orange peels in the ocean (that if he hadn't seen them, who knows if they really existed) and his views on educational reform reflect on an overarching belief: individual observation and and understanding are the most essential tools for any deeper understanding.
When I read about Salinger's input on the publication of nine stories, I found it interesting that he wouldn't allow for any illustrations to go along with his stories. The faithful Wikipedia says, "Already tightening his grip on publicity, though, Salinger refused to allow publishers of the collection to depict his characters in dust jacket illustrations, lest readers form preconceived notions of them." This goes along with Salinger's theme, shown in Teddy, that interpretation and individual understanding matter more than someone else's "accepted" or "confirmed" point of view. Maybe the reason why he chose to start off the collection of stories with such an open-ended/strange question ("what is the sound of one hand clapping?") is because Salinger wanted readers to come back and realize that sometimes it's better not to have a definitive answer, especially with his own stories.
I think this is a very interesting point, by refusing a physical portrait of his characters, it is almost as if Salinger does not want them to be confined to a single physical dimension, much like Teddy's description of a log not ending where it is perceived to be, but rather continuing for eternity. I think this is a good example of how arbitrary the physical world can be, a belief expressed by Salinger through Teddy. It seems to me, that by refusing illustrations, Salinger believes that it is the reader's interpretation of the characters that makes the stories valuable.
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