tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6567382235428399471.post5861290032713097889..comments2021-10-30T13:54:08.521-04:00Comments on Mentor's Reader: Crosstalk: The Price of SaltMPL Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04814065046587807468noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6567382235428399471.post-1249865497483489582016-03-01T13:04:59.628-05:002016-03-01T13:04:59.628-05:00I agree with Meredith and would only add that, sal...I agree with Meredith and would only add that, salt being about flavor, the reference is probably meant to suggest something about the texture of Therese’s and Carol’s loves. Clearly, for both women things in life have become flat and flavorless. When they meet their relationship returns flavor to their lives, or adds savor, or something like that. But of course it comes at a price which is a lot of what the second half of the book is about. As we mentioned in the original piece, the price that they pay (at least in the part of their lives that we are allowed to see) is not as catastrophic as the society of the 1950s might have expected, but heavy nonetheless. What price they may have to pay in the future is left up to the imagination. But at the same time Therese and Carol have found a road into the open, and Highsmith clearly suggests that this is worth the price that they have to pay.<br />~JohnMPL Staffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04814065046587807468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6567382235428399471.post-3955904167709986252016-03-01T13:04:30.747-05:002016-03-01T13:04:30.747-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.MPL Staffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04814065046587807468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6567382235428399471.post-16409154460514383302016-02-29T10:19:38.627-05:002016-02-29T10:19:38.627-05:00This New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/...This New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/30/forbidden-love) suggests Highsmith was referencing a Bible passage (Matthew 5:13):<br /><br />“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”<br /><br />The first reference to "salt" comes late in the novel when Therese has been left behind by Carol who was forced to return to New York to deal with her divorce:<br /><br />“In the middle of the block, she [Therese] opened the door of a coffee shop, but they were playing one of the songs she had heard with Carol everywhere, and she let the door close and walked on. The music lived, but the world was dead. And the song would die one day, she thought, but how would the world come back to life? How would its salt come back?”<br /><br />It's a fairly oblique reference, but I think salt can be seen as a metaphor for a requirement of life. And in this instance, when one brings up the "price" of something, you invoke the feelings of loss or longing. So, speaking more specifically in the case of this novel it suggests that there is a cost for Carol and Therese to be together. Is it that Carol loses custody of Rindy? Or something else down the line that comes after the novel ends? <br />~MeredithMPL Staffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04814065046587807468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6567382235428399471.post-74504015488183997642016-02-26T13:13:14.878-05:002016-02-26T13:13:14.878-05:00Excellent discussion and analysis. I like this for...Excellent discussion and analysis. I like this format - the back and forth. It'd be interesting to read you two having a go at a book one of you likes and the other does not. I can understand why the title got changed for the movie - that almost always happens, but what did the original title mean? What salt was being referred to and what was its price? Who paid that price?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com