a poor old guesser

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Sat, 05 Dec 1998 12:22:42 +0000 

    I can see that I must indeed be - as Will & Jim would 
    have me - a degenerating dinosaur.   Certainly the latter 
    is quite right in his portrayal of me as a pathetic old git 
    reduced to the game of trying to guess what Salinger 
    might have intended us to take from his words.  

    It can't be wholly a question of age, though.  Acquaintances 
    in Eng Lit departments on this side of the Atlantic assure 
    me that the 'community' approach to reading is a 
    Frog fashion that the Americans have embraced as eagerly 
    (& gullibly ?) as they once did the teaching of Julia Childs.  
    The poor things, they say, find irresistible anything which 
    combines the impressively verbose with an implicit flattery 
    of the Common Man & his contribution to western culture.  
    The fashion will pass no doubt - just as like the hula hoop 
    & chrome Niagaras on the front of motor cars.

    Scottie B.