Salinger speaks at Amazon.Com?

Stephen Foskett (sfoskett@slf.gweep.net)
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 10:20:05 -0600 

Hey, everyone...

I just got some email that the "From the Author" section of the Hapworth
page at Amazon.Com has been filled-in.  Below you will find the amusing
exercise in writing in the style of J.D. Salinger found at that site.
Amusing, yes, but I suspect that Salinger would have capitalized "i" (and
so much else) and would no have mis-punctuated his own initials, if he even
would have written such a self-interested piece at all in such an ephemeral
and commercial place.  But it is amusing, and whoever wrote it has surely
read a bit of Salinger.  They got the style ok (if a bit heavily laid-on)
but missed the content...

You can read it for yourself at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0914061658/qid=918231190/sr=1-1/002-3
913349-6138610

Note that ANYONE can write a "From the Author" review on Amazon.Com.  There
is no verification done that I am aware of...   Should I let Amazon know
about all this?

Stephen

--

The author, JD Salinger , January 29, 1999
for the appleeaters, with regards to hapworth
I suppose that the overread or underthought will presume that I published
this book to capitilize on some eccentric vision of the man-child recluse
as we spiral towards the big 2000. I don't feel the need to justify the
stupifyingly uninteresting story that is the publishing of this book. I
feel like i should tell you something truly heavy and Glass worthy, in
honor of Hapworth and all, otherwise the general readership will lose all
faith in this aged and constantly aging sod. But that's the blindingly
off-putting irony, worthy of perhaps the finest mid-afternoon melodrama
(which, by the by, is not much different than the very worst of said
genre), of the whole thing. There's so much that's been said, so much
that's been written, and so much that's been thought about this writer (a
title that I wear not unlike a badge of distinct honor at a grade school
science fair), but there's a precious scarcity of valuable things that I
can think to say back. Just hello, and thank you for caring about the
playthings of my imagination. No flair for the dramatic, dear reader, just
the singularly narrow-minded and perhaps religious desire to "only
connect", as a greater man once said. Hapworth will be out this year, and
it is my sincere intention that those people that enjoyed my other works
will enjoy this one, regardless of its substantial shelf-life, as well.
Seymour would certainly have something better to say, something all
inclusive and inspiring and goddamn frustrating, and if you like that sort
of thing, Hapworth is your ticket, as they say. Until then, thanks to you.