Subject: Salinger The Story Teller
From: Scott Sperry (SSperry@PINNCORP.COM)
Date: Mon Jun 30 1997 - 18:01:33 GMT
I am new to this discussion group. The rumor of a new Salinger
publication sent me searching the Internet for confirmation; I stumbled
upon the Bananafish web site, and now have arrived here at the
Bananafish Digest.
I have read several days worth of correspondence with respect to JDS. I
find the discussion of Salinger's extreme desire for privacy interesting
to the extent that talking about Salinger's anonymity has been going on
for years. I first read "Catcher In The Rye" in college (the late
'70's), then a bunch of us found his other three books, then we searched
the Reader's Guides in our college library for anything we could find,
discovering many of his early short stories published in the '40's
(http://slf.gweep.net/~sfoskett/jds/stories/magazines.html). And then
that was it!--no more Salinger! What do you mean, there has to be more!
Tell me more about the Glass family! When is his next novel due out?
Surely the New Yorker will publish something soon!
But we went on to discover that Salinger was in seclusion, vowed never
to publish again... So then my fellow Salinger readers and I spent many
a night discussing how it's possible that he's not publishing anymore
and maybe we could write him & he'd write back and let's take a road
trip to find his house and maybe he'll show us this file cabinet with
hundreds of unpublished stories and on and on. But it was all for
not...
So why do we discuss his reclusive tendencies? Ultimately it's because
want more from him -- I want a new story! -- I want him to publish a new
novel! He chose to be a writer and he chose to publish his work, and
one of the possible consequences of publishing is success! -- you might
actually be good enough that people read your work and like it -- even
love it as millions of people have loved "Catcher In The Rye" over the
years. We just want more good fiction from him. And in its absence, we
discuss HIS absence and we say clichés like "the work should stand on
its own" and "he has a right to his privacy" and we read more about
legal battles with his publicist than we are able to read of Salinger's
work! (of course we're able to read more about the O.J. Simpson trials
than we will ever read by JDS -- that's a sad state of affairs).
To all of it I say 'bullpuppies'. Salinger chose to write publicly --
he didn't necessarily choose to be good, but it turned out that way --
and thousands of sincere people want to read more! It's just too bad he
won't publish -- and if he has stopped writing, it's really too bad (I
can't imagine having his gift and not exercising it). JDS is a good
story teller -- he should tell more stories!
By the way, about the time I was reading Salinger for the first time, a
friend handed me a copy of a novel titled "The World According To Garp"
by John Irving and I discovered what a great story teller he is and have
spent a few evenings wondering if Salinger has ever read
Irving.....there's plenty to read by the John-man Mr. Salinger.....I
just wish there was more from you.
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