Re: Salinger turns to the Dark Side
Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Thu, 24 Jun 1999 13:04:40 +0100
I'm not altogether clear what Camille means by
the vacuum in which she sees Salinger working
in his later days.
I presume she doesn't mean the withdrawal to
the house in the woods or his refusal to engage
in public discourse. That, in one form or another,
is the choice of most artists. Among such good writers
as I've known personally, most were at great pains
to avoid the bar/lit. party/chat show circuit -
while the pubs of London & Dublin are filled
with grand talkers & socialisers, all of them on the point
of leaving for home to start their great novel.
Nor do I believe (despite the unpopularity of this view
on the list) that there can be any dialogue - within
the proper meaning of the word - between an artist
& his audience. The creation of good new stuff takes
place, after all, way far out beyond that point where
the readers have so far ventured. The writer is not only
alone in his study, he must also resign himself to being
alone in his mind.
Having said all that, I DO have sympathy with Camille's
view that there is something claustrophobic, self-regarding,
solipsistic, about Salinger's later writing. As she says,
the feeling is rather strong that one is eavesdropping:
on someone playing by (or with) himself in an empty room -
almost as though one had caught him admiring his own body
in the mirror.
Scottie B.