Re: JDS The Poet

Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:00:47 +1100 

It *is* ambivalent. What about the Fat Lady? The ultimate symbol of the
fatuous audience member for which every performer prostitutes him or
herself. What about Zooey's quote that I already mentioned? I think we can
discount Salinger's boyhood drama criticisms; he's already made it
abundantly clear that that was the work of Jerry Salinger and not JD
Salinger, so to speak. So too just about all his work and experiences pre
Catcher; he himself seems to discount them in a similar way - after all,
the interests of a thirty year old man are going to differ very much even
from that of the same man twenty years previously. How about Holden and
Radio City Music Hall? The crummy angels that Jesus would have hated? The
vehement non-appearance of Catcher or any Salinger work in any form of
performance? (other than the pretty cruddy My Foolish Heart). Edward G
Robinson as Sybil? I could go on ...

Now *that's* ambivalence,

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest

MEPIERCE wrote:
> Salinger always seems to have a bit of an
> > ambivalent relationship with acting and plays - after all, taking on
the
> > persona of a fictional person would have to be the highest form of
> > phoniness ever, 
> 
> And yet he served as a theatre critic at Ursinus College and declared
> himself interested in dramatics at Valley Forge.
> 
> Carlos Baker reports that in a letter to Hemingway, Salinger said he
> would like to play the lead in the play version of Catcher. He also told
> Whit Burnett that he would like to act in plays and act in them himself.
> 
> And he didn't hesitate to show his son support at his opening night on
> Broadway. . .
> 
> And if I remember correctly, Zooey implores Franny to pursue her
> acting.  "You were good. And when I say good, I mean good,"  he says of
> Franny's performance in a play that he and Buddy (?) saw in secret.    
> 
> As you state, Salinger's relationship to the theatre is ambivalent. . .
> -- 
> M.E. Pierce
> Dept. of English, SFASU
> http://TITAN.SFASU.EDU/~f_pierceme/
> "I loaf and invite my soul. . ." Uncle Walt