Re: Want to get depressed?

Eryk Charles Arthur Salvaggio (ecs1@keene.edu)
Wed, 10 Dec 1997 07:26:17 -0500 (EST) 

I solved my own problem...posted this letter to the site. If you haven't 
been there, it has a handy little pre-filled card thingy that is already 
addressed "Dear JD Salinger..." And by the way, the Jerry Springer dig 
was no offense to the question concerning which of the glaasses would be 
on Jerry Sprnger or the person who posted it...(Personally, I'd say the 
mosyt liely to go on Springer would be Muriels Mother, to talk about her 
daughters marriage, and then Muriel would end up forced to go along 
because her mother would want it that way.)



Dec 9, 1997
   17:36

   Dear J. D. Salinger, It is my deepest concern that you never, ever
   even have to consider the idea that this book has been written, that
   you will never recieve confirmation that your "hiding" was the only
   way out. It would be terrible to say this in any other circumstance,
   but what I see in this book is verification of what we've seen in all
   your stories; genius being crushed by mediocrity and expectations of
   "normalcy." The egos that construct these letters, these "rhetorical
   questions which are not for you, but for each other," its obvious that
   they don't get it, exactly, and the people who do, well, they know to
   just shut the hell up. The author, of course, has no problem cashing
   in on your "fan base" that you have refused to cash in on, that you
   have had enough respect (for the ones you actually wrote for) to stop
   writing all together. Its ego, its all ego, and its a shame that this
 book will be printed, reviewed, and chart the best seller list for
   nonfiction within four weeks of its printing. Mr. Salinger, on behalf
   of America, on behalf of the people who feel compelled to write you
   based on the need for a research paper or out of the aching need for
   fame, for their addiction to other peoples lives and Jerry Springer
   Shows, I apologize for this. The people who have read, and understood,
   will keep the promise that we made as soon as we realized we literally
   loved those stories, and that promise is the simple promise of
   silence. -ecas

I followed this with six or seven "letters" that the site host himself 
wrote in the section "ATTENTION PUBLISHERS!" So it was basically a letter 
to JD Salinger telling him how much money a book of letters to JD 
Salinger would be worth. I think it was pretty funny if not completely 
juvinile, but oh well.