entranced writing

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Tue, 12 Jan 1999 08:43:56 +0000

    '...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.