Subject: Re: Yes, we have no .....
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 17 2001 - 20:14:21 GMT
Zazie may be confused by not knowing Jimmy Durante singing "Yes, we
have no bananas" but I believe it was a hit song in the early-mid
part of the 20th century. Beaver coats were the stlye in the l920s,
"Ernie" I imagine as Ernest Hemingway, "Zelda" can only by F. Scott's
wife, a Stutz was the nickname for a car that is no longer made, a
rumble seat was a seat in the rear of a car (instead of trunk) and a
"uke" is a Hawaiian string instrument that is a bit smaller than a
mandolin. In other words, Scottie has the imagination and talent to
make this list reach back to a time before Salinger was born to
consider his roots in what was called "The Lost Generation." But Will
is here to make the point that list life reaches across
generations...no one here needs to get lost in the rye, will
PS: Scottie as Jimmy Durante or F.Scott Fitzgerald makes me smile
this Saturday morning. I'm not smiling at the NYTimes who chose not
to print my letter in response to a 7/29/01 end paper by Judith
Shulevitz...they didn't publish any letters in response to her piece
but I'm still feeling almost upset...I really thought this letter
would make it into the NYTimes book review even though I know it's
silly to hope for such a thing...
However, in the spirit of Scottie singing about no bananas and
throwing us back in time, here's the letter the Times should have
published:
7/29/01 Dear Editor,
As a student of J.D. Salinger's work and the critical response to it
(NYU dissertation, l994), I appreciated Judith Shulevitz's remarks
in "Holden Reconsidered and All." I would additionally like to note
that there is such a variety of critical response in what George
Steiner called "the Salinger Industry" that it is important to get a
sense of diversity in the criticism and life of Salinger's work.
Ms. Shulevitz provokes fine issues and mentions some of my favorite
Salinger readers. I enjoyed mention of Alfred Kazin's criticism of
Salinger but want to emphasize that Kazin was largely positive
concerning the author. As represented in "Holden Reconsidered and
All," I can almost hear Kazin saying to Salinger, "I know the writer,
and you're no F. Scott Fitzgerald!" I wrote in my dissertation
("Strategies of Critical Response to the Fiction of J.D. Salinger")
that "by l973, Kazin had upgraded Salinger's craft to 'genius' and
accepted as 'specialized' and 'right' what his l961 essay
attacked."
I would like to invite Ms. Shulevitz to send a letter to J.D.
Salinger for the forthcoming Letters to Salinger
(http://members.aol.com/jdsletters/). I'm co-editing the book with
Chris Kubica and it will be published later this year by the
University of Wisconsin Press. Ms. Shulevitz's critical work on
Salinger makes me believe that she deserves to join such Salinger
critics as Eberhard Alsen, Warren French, Elizabeth Kurian, Gerad
Rosen and Sanford Pinsker in our book. Letters to Salinger will also
include letters from such writers as Lee K. Abbott, Donald Anderson,
Harlan Ellison, Don De Grazia, Jim Harrison, Adrian C. Louis, W.P.
Kinsella, Cris Mazza, Stuart O'Nan, Molly Peacock, Tom Robbins and
Melanie Rae Thon. In addition to critics and writers, we have
collected letters to Salinger from readers, students and teachers
from around the world. In other words, there is a book on the
Salinger horizon that will collect international and
intergenerational reading responses that are too alive with critical
and creative insights to be overlooked. The flood of responses we
have received serves as a counterpoint to Ms. Shulevitz's
disappointed revisitation to The Catcher in the Rye. In fact, its
50th anniversary is not only about remembering the novel. It's about
all of the people reading it for the first time, revisiting it, and
living with the words of J. D. Salinger.
Sincerely,
*****
will
-- Will HochmanAssistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024
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