Re: Is Salinger from the Beat Generation?

patrick flaherty (pfkw@email.msn.com)
Thu, 09 Jul 1998 21:10:14 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Mayes <ianmayes@rocketmail.com>
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Date: Thursday, July 09, 1998 4:32 PM
Subject: Is Salinger from the Beat Generation?


>Comrades,
>
>
>I've had this question in the back of my mind for a
>long time, and I guess this would probably be the
>best place to ask it:
>
>" Is J.D. Salinger from the Beat Generation? "
>
>I mean, he was writing and doing his thing around the
>same time as those guys, and his writing is kinda
>stream-of-conscious, for the moment, live-life kinda
>stuff... I dunno, I am not exactly an expert on the
>Beat Generation, some Ivy League professor on this
>list will probably chew me out for saying all this,
>but to ME he certainly does seem to be a part of the
>whole Beat movement... Or at least inspired by the
>Beat Generation... Or maybey vice versa... But good
>lord, there has to be SOME connection! :-)
>
>
>                     In Solidarity,
>
>
>                       Ian Mayes
>_________________________________________________________
>DO YOU YAHOO!?
>Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
>I think you have raised an interesting question, Ian.  It is one that I
have often thought of myself.  I don't think Salinger should be considered a
writer of the Beat School.  However, as you have pointed out, he did publish
during the time of the Beat Movement.  Perhaps fifty years from now someone
will publish something trying to prove that Salinger was a Beat simply
because he was contemporary with Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and the rest.
I would disagree with this mainly because I think that Salinger is a writer
who should not be categorized into a certain group or school of writing.
His work will prove to be much more universal that that of the Beat writers.
In the years to come the journey of Holden Caulfield will be much more
accessible to the reading public than will Kerouac's On The Road.  I am not
for a minute trashing Kerouac, I just think that his work will prove to be
more dated than Salinger's.

As I write this, I am flipping through my copy of On The Road.  I just came
across this underlined passage.  This is Kerouac bemoaning the loss of the
"Ideal bar" in America.
"An ideal bar is something that has gone beyond our ken. . . . Now all you
get is chromium, drunken women, fags, hostile bartenders, anxious owners who
hover around the door, worried about their leather seats and the law; just a
lot of screaming at the wrong time and deadly silence when a stranger walks
in."
One can easily compare this to Holden's description of the bar scene in New
York.  Just a quick thought.

One last thing.  Would anyone put Charles Bukowski in the category of Beat
Writers?