Subject: Text Within Text
From: Matthew Cole (matthewcole26@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Aug 05 2001 - 17:38:55 GMT
Will, you're post got me thinking again about the effect that an authors
personal life should have on their work.
It seems to me that the public prefers their artists (musicians, authors,
painters, etc.) to be larger than life and extremely excentric. J.D.
Salinger fits that bill perfectly and I would be suprised if he didn't
relaize that himself. I'm not sugesting that his lifestyle is one giant
publicity stunt, but I think that it would be naieve to think that Salinger
didn't, maybe even subconsioulsy, play up his reputation. It may not be
because he wants to sell more books, it may be because he enjoys the
attention or notiriety or power that comes with the position that he is in.
This is obviously all speculation though, nobody can say for sure why he
does what he does.
I don't, however, think that he owes the readers anything as Steve sugested.
Perhaps he realizes that he's no better suited than anyone else to be an
example and prefers to speak through his work. That's perfectly acceptable
and it's his perogative to do as he choses. The only person that he has to
worry about pleasing is himself. An artist may be born with the innate need
to write and share his writings but that does not mean that he is commited
himself to being a public figure. There are plenty of other people who are
anxious to take up that job and would most likely do a much better job. To
shove someone like Salinger into the spotlight and attemt to make him
something that he is not (spiritual leader, public figure) is only going to
make him uncomfortable and resentful. And judging from what I've learned
about his personal life, I would much rather look to J.D. Salinger's text
for advice and comfort than the man himself.
Will, you also made a great point about Salinger's "text within text." It's
something that I've felt for a long time but never really been able to put
my finger on. It seems to me that when most other author's try to use the
same technique it ends up sounding more like literaty name dropping. In
Salinger's works, especially in Zooey, the refrences seem to fit like a
glove and are woven into the story perfectly. It doesn't sound generic at
all, and I'm not quite sure how he does it.
Just a couple random thoughts and I'm anxious to hear how everyone else
feels about it.
-Matthew Cole
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Sep 10 2001 - 15:42:12 GMT