New website [attempt]
Colbourne (colby@online.net.pg)
Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:29:02 +1000
G'day,
I've decided to compile a collection of essays, thoughts and notes on The Catcher
in the Rye and/or other Salinger stories for a webpage at:
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/dadd/92/bananafish.html
I'd really, really, appreciate it if you could email me any old papers and essays
that you have lying around. I assume that, given the volume of requests on the
net from people asking for help with The Catcher and Salinger and the rest of his
work, that some of these questions eventually evolved into answers which
themselves evolved into some sort of cohesive form that others might one day
understand :) If you can't give up some work that you've written in the past, it
would be greatly appreciated if you could humour me and rustle something
together. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking and original, and it doesn't have
to be an essay. Perhaps you could just resolve a myriad of jumbled thoughts into
a single cogent paragraph that summarises your present feelings on the work.
Anything; notes, thoughts and even, heaven forbid, digressions! But please,
whatever you do, for the love of God, please spare us any references to certain
movies starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts :)
I just know that there are heaps of wonderful pieces out there that'll only ever
be read by a single college professor or a stray English teacher. And it'd just
be great to have somewhere on the net where people's polished final resolutions
come together for others to read. If you'd like to see how they'll be arranged
and presented, you can have a look at, once again,
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/dadd/92/bananafish.html
for the initial design. I must admit, sometimes I feel reluctant to discuss The
Catcher in the Rye, as though pulling apart the pieces will somehow leave you
with dusty shreds that slip between your fingers, but clearly, there are moments
when it doesn't feel like tearing out pages, and for a brief few words you sink
deeper and deeper into the heart of it all, and at the deep end of the pool you
find Holden offering SCUBA gear on the bottom.
I'm sure that most of you would have an old paper around somewhere. If every
person on the bananafish list could spare just a page or so to resolve some sort
of final word on how they see Holden, The Catcher or another story, or Salinger's
work in general, I would be unutterably grateful.
And I know that some feelings tend to change from day to day, but surely there
is, at the least, a single paragraph of some permanence you could set down upon
it all? And even if you can't, today's angle will do just as well.
I don't know if it's just me (or at least, just my observation), but the net just
seems to have become a lot more perverted of late. I have a Kafka page, and the
stats have a URL referrer which provides information about the link the last
visitor to your site followed to get to your page. This particular Kafka page is
entitled 'An Intercourse with Ghosts', which is a phrase that Kafka once used to
describe the process of letter-writing. Lewder interpretations of the title never
quite occurred to me. That's a lie actually - being a teenager it fully-well
occurred to me but I didn't think that it would effect anything. According to the
page stats, and thanks to the wonders of modern searchengine technology, one
lucky individual was led to my site when what they were actually looking for was
'pictures+couples+intercourse'. And I've had several plain 'intercourse'
searchers stumble in too :)
So please have a good rummage through your old work or your new thoughts and
email me something. Even if you have some sort of objection to such a Salinger
site, please send it and I'll put that up too, with your permission.
Cheers,
--Brad.
"There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there.
Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time."
J.D.S.
P.S. Please submit your work in .txt format, if not, I'll reformat it for you, if
you'll permit it. Anonymous submissions are also welcomed. I'd also appreciate
any other suggestions...
Camille, I just know that you've got something for me :)