'...Others were about: writers of the past (JDS's loves), JDS's inspirations (both religious and personal), JDS's unconscious Self becoming conscious, even the Muse or daemon or whatever you want to call it. Salinger, take my word for it, if you don't already agree, is as astonished/puzzled/moved to tears/bewildered by things in his own writings as we the readers of it are...' Why *is* there this apparent need to play down the role that intelligence, persistence & deliberation play in the act of writing ? One might just as well claim that also present were his grandmother's genes for verbal facility, the quality of the soup he ate for lunch, the television show he watched the previous night.... I think I know why. Many readers wish to be writers. They try it - & discover that it's a much harder, lonelier business than they suspected. It's comforting then to see those who *have* succeeded as human ouija boards who simply sat in a quiet room, opened themselves to the wisdom of the race, said a few Vedic prayers & waited for the hands to start their automatic typing. I'm pretty sure the only way Salinger has been surprised by his own writing is in wide variety of loopy interpretations & projections some of his fans have contrived for their own satisfaction. Scottie B.