The Great Salinger May Not Be Universal

Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:22:48 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 14 Jul 1998, Camille Scaysbrook wrote:

> So which side of the argument are you on? I can't quite figure out whether
> you are saying you agree that Salinger's work will last because of its
> universality, or it won't. 

I am decidedly on the "Salinger's work won't last" side of things.  It's
not universal, except to people who think their personal experiences are
universal.  I thought I'd rather plainly said so two or three times
recently.  


> I consider something `universal' to mean that it
> transcends its time and place of composing 

To call anything "universal" is dangerous.  There are components of
Salinger's work that are wide-reaching (they transcend the time and place
of composing), but for the most part, Salinger is not as universal as we
might hope.  Lesley's post of today is well taken. 

--------------------------------------------
Matt Kozusko  mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu