Subject: JD's Short Fiction
From: Scott Wachtler (sfvat@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us)
Date: Tue Feb 11 1997 - 14:49:29 GMT
Hello everyone!
I've been lurking for a while and have just now gotten up enough nerve to
post something. I've been interested in the comments people have made
regarding Salinger's short stories, but I notice that one ALWAYS seems to
get over looked and it happens to be one of my favorites. Pretty Mouth
And Green My Eyes. It deals with one of Salinger's favorite subjects, the
differences between good people and bad. Nobody in this story is
particularly good except for maybe the cuckold husband, but even he turns
out to be a phoney liar in the end. I love the dialog and even the
*description* of the dialog. Has anyone else noticed how Salinger
italicizes certain syllables in words that sometimes tell the reader more
than if it was written normally? This story just breaks my heart on so
many different levels. On one level it shows a horrible marriage. On
another level it shows a man reaching out to a friend when the friend is
part of the heartache. It's so sad, but a perfect slice of the bad side
Salinger eludes to in most of his writing. In Uncle Wiggly, the main
character's concern of whether she was a good girl once or even Holden
wanting to protect children from the great fall. IMHO, This story and one
of Salinger's uncollected, "Go See Eddie." deal with this fall from grace
and show the evil men and women are sometimes capable of.
I guess since I've never properly introduced myself I should now. My name
is Scott Wachtler, I'm a proud owner of all 22 uncollected stories, and
I've been on this list for over a year now. In that time I've seen one of
my short stories published in Gallery Magazine. Yes, Gallery magazine,
the home of the Girl Next Door! Before you judge my story on those merits
though, understand that Gallery's fiction isn't the type that starts out,
"You'll never believe this happened to me. . ." Some of the fiction they
print does fall under the label of dumb sex stories, but some of them are
fairly literate. I'd like to think mine falls into the fairly literate
category. I wasn't too upset about my first published credit showing up
there (Christ, the check cleared!) but what does upset me is that nobody
will read it (Hey, maybe THAT's where JD should publish!) since most of
their "reader"ship are more interested in the pictures than my story, I'd
love to share the story with you bananafishers. I think it would be more
polite to post it privately to anyone who cares to read it. Reply to me
through Email if you're interested. I'm very bad at summarizing my
stories so all I can tell you about it is that it's a love story (no sex,
even though it appeared in Gallery!) about a fictional Jazz musician named
Winston Orvall Wainright The WOW man of the tenor sax!
Thanks
Scott Wachtler
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