Re: Hello!

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Fri, 12 Dec 1997 02:05:14 -0500

Welcome to the list!

> My name is Larissa Heap, and I am a Junior at the University of Michigan.
> I, like many other people have become very interested in J.D. Salinger and
> his work through class assignment, but I feel my interest is now going
> well beyond.  I am in the process of writing a paper about _Nine Stories_
> and have been searching the internet the entire day for information.  The
> more I
> find (or don't find which is more often the case) the more intrigued I
> have become.

In the short term, check out the critical writing about Salinger; you'll
find them in your library and will glean a lot more there than you will
pick up online.  (Note to Will: Do you have a list of a dozen or so
critical works you've consistently relied on?)

> I am quite unsure of the number of people on this list, I am just
> interested in comment and discussion which this group may generate.

About 250 people.  A few join every day.  A few quit.  Or their accounts
vanish.

> have become much more than information for a paper.  My main curiosities
> at the moment lie in the connection between Salinger and his characters.
> Admittedly, Holden Caufield is somewhat autobiographical, but so many
> other characters are greatly similar. Does anyone know any more about this
> phenomenon?  How does Salinger's Zen Buddhism relate to his characters and
> work?

See if you can get your hands on a copy of Eberhard Alsen's "Salinger's
Glass Stories as a Composite Novel."  He does a nice job of it.

--tim