Re: a humbling point
Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Sat, 17 Jan 1998 22:42:40 -0800 (PST)
>What does it mean that subscribers, some of them long-time, have signed
>off this week? Has the list activity over the past week been
particularly
>difficult in some way? Overburdened with non-Salinger discussion? Is
>this terrible? Is it unusual? How does it compare to subscribers'
>experiences on other mailing lists?
When I first subscribed to this list, I simultaneously subscribed to
two PJ Harvey mailing lists--one was a "News" list, and one was a
"talk" list. It turned out that the "News" list never sent me a
goddam thing, and the "talk" list was just people exchanging bootlegs
and posters and stuff. I was thoroughly disappointed. PJ Harvey,
in my opinion, is as important to music as Salinger is to literature.
When I tried to strike up a discussion about whether her song "Daddy"
relates to the Sylvia Plath poem of the same title, not a single
subscriber responded.
Bananafish, on the other hand, has given me a steady flow of thoughtful,
provocative, and important discussions since I first
subscribed, about three months ago. In that time, digressions have
stemmed into the realms of Homophobia, religion, capital letters, and
the importance of Ginsberg. Some of it was frustrating and some of
it was incredible, but I never once considered leaving the list. Some
people--including myself--occassionally contribute posts that don't
contain much thought, are unnecessarily haughty, and/or have very little
to do with Salinger...but I've always found this to be the exception,
not the rule.
I can see how the list could become very tedious for long-time
subscribers, who perhaps must read and reread the same discussions
over and over again, only with different contributors. On the other
hand, with a steady list of new subscribers, I would think that there
would be a steady flow of new ideas. I refuse to believe that any of us
can ever cease to learn about Salinger.
What I'm saying, I think, is that I don't believe this list could fail.
As long as people join with the intention of discussing Salinger, there
will always be Salinger discussion. The one disturbing thing that I
have noticed is the vast number of people who introduce themselves and
then are never heard from again. That's very
disappointing to me, but I don't know what to do about it besides to
encourage them to join in.
Perhaps some people left because (in America, anyway), winter breaks are
ending, and students are going back to school. I don't know...what does
everyone think?
Brendan
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