Re: a watching brief

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Fri, 07 Aug 1998 11:39:55 -0500 

Hail, Sonny!  (It's been a long time.)

> coot's supposed "spirituality."  Off hand, to me earlier it had seemed
> like a cheap case of kiss-and-tell to cash in on JDS's name, but I am
> reminded once again how there can be no absolutes in terms of even what I
> consider a legitimate act or not...like generally, I personally would
> scoff at some one "exploiting" a relationship into a book, but I guess I
> would like to read the book (actually, purely for salacious pleasure). .

There is a principle that ought to be taught in Reclusiveness 101, which is
that when you let down your drawbridge, you leave yourself open not only to
hurt, but (worse, for a recluse) to public exposure.  I can't imagine that
Salinger was able to open his life to someone, *a writer*, no less, without
at least imagining that she might eventually pop his bubble of silence.

> But, as for that Oona-Chaplin angle: hmmm, yeah... but Hamilton was not
> allowed to quote that Chaplin bit from the letter that NYT, however, could
> report about in its coverage on the court case. Since "fair use" quoting
> from a newspaper report, is not violative of any copyright infringements,
> here it is:

Ah, thanks for that very fair-use quote!

> I am sure that if a
> tally were to be kept, CITR must be one of the most oft-used reference
> point in book reviews. Just an idle observation.

This is the sort of detail that occasionally comes up when columnists like
William Safire do searches on Nexis (the full-text news database service)
in search of word-usage.  Does anyone here have access to that service?  It
would be intriguing to know stats on the usage of "Holden Caulfield" and
"Catcher in the Rye" and perhaps a Boolean search on "Holden" AND
"alienation"!

>    DYLAN: I must have identified with him.

Oy....  To quote from Paul Simon's "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I
Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)":

	I knew a man whose brains were small
	He couldn't think of nothing at all
	Not the same as you and me
	He doesn't dig poetry

	He's so unhip,
	when you say Dylan,
	he thinks you're talking
	'bout dylan thomas --
	whoever he was

	The man ain't got no culture
	But it's all right ma,
	everybody must get stoned

[Sung through the nose, with Dylan-style harmonica interposed throughout.]

I don't know why, but this popped into my head when I read the interview
excerpt, which made me laugh out loud.

--tim