Re: a watching brief
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Thu, 06 Aug 1998 13:31:29 -0500
> Our own JD raises the suspicion - which has been mentioned
> on the list before - that the other JD, the Great JD, could himself
> be a member.
Certainly it is possible ... but there's nobody using his name explicitly.
(Yes, I *am* aware that anyone can grab the appropriate name and pretend to
be him, but I can imagine the resulting legal fracas if someone REALLY
tried to pass as Salinger, compared to the casual instances in the past on
this list.) However, we do have plenty of variations on "holden," "zooey,"
"franny," and "JD" as subscribers. Some days, Scottie, I think you'd be
suspect #1!
> To judge by the prim disapproval which has so swiftly met
> Joyce Maynard's revelations, the suspicion must be quite widespread.
Hmmmmm. I sort of think otherwise, or perhaps I missed the primness in
some message that passed through here. Most of the reaction seems to be
about the unlikely connection between a teenager and a 53-year-old man --
an ironic situation, given Salinger's own response when his romantic
interest, Oona O'Neill, married Charlie Chaplin. (Salinger made at least
one acid remark in a letter about O'Neill's sudden marriage; I believe it's
cited in Ian Hamilton's book.)
By the way, Joyce M. has quite a surreal web site that might or might not
interest readers:
http://www.joycemaynard.com
It hasn't been updated with the Vanity Fair information yet.
> And the hushed, respectful tones which `mr. salinger' is referred
> to reminds me of nothing so much as the furtive nervousness with
> which the Catholic members of the class used to cross themselves
> when one of the naughty atheists stood up & challenged God to strike
> him down with lightning.
Respect's a funny thing, eh? We in the colonies need a bit of
enlightenment on being less respectful, and all that. 8-)
--tim o'connor