Re: Salinger and Lit Theory

AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Sat, 06 Dec 1997 22:56:34 -0500 (EST) 

In a message dated 97-12-06 21:04:46 EST, you write:

<< Last night I kept thinking about (was it Lagusta's?) comments about how
sometimes
 she just deletes all the Bananafish posts because it's too personal for her
that
 day, as well as Tim's comments about how sometimes the stories are just there
to
 sigh for, and I wondered if my approach to this list, no matter how well
 intentioned, wasn't quite as "gentle" as what everyone else dreams it would
be. I
 keep forgetting that I didn't have email when I was discovering JDS when I
was
 growing up therefore my admiration of his work was silenced for many years
before
 I discovered this list. I wonder if "I" would have deleted all the posts some
days
 just because it was too personal for me during those times. Of course, since
I'm
 on the list I guess I include myself in what I dream the list to be as well,
yada
 yada yada.
 
 Malcs >>

Course you would have deleted it all some days :).

The reverence listmembers here have for Salinger is pretty interesting.  In
the past I've subscribed to several listserves about literature in general,
and particular authors, and I've NEVER seen the type of feeling for the
subject that I see on this list.  Never.  

Don't get me wrong, people on other listserves have their ideas and get
defensive when other people disagree.  It's amazing how much people will shout
others down in the name of free speech, or enforce moral judgments against
those they perceive as judgmental.  On those listserves, though, their ideas
about the literature are what's important--the attachment is to their ideas,
not to the literature itself. 

Here, however, you have an attachment to the work itself, or to the author.
That's why people delete all the posts some days--not wanting to hear analysis
or what others say about it.

I understand the feeling.  Salinger really sucked me in too, and I get pretty
jaded about literature sometimes.  I find myself having to remind myself that
Salinger is just a man, and Catcher and all the Glass stories are just
books--Salinger isn't Moses, and his works aren't the Word of God
written...tho it seems that way sometimes :)  

I guess he wrote who he was and what he valued more than most authors, and
those who are like him can identify....

Jim