RE: Salinger turns to the Dark Side
Sean Draine (seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com)
Thu, 24 Jun 1999 18:04:43 -0700
Camille:
"I was thinking the other day about the idea of geniuses working in vacuums,
and thinking what a terribly dangerous way it is to work..."
I quite agree, Camille!
Theoretical physicists may thrive in a vacuum, but fiction writers do not.
If you're going to write about people for people, it really helps to have a
few of them around. If a writer has spent a decade holed up alone in a
cabin, it should come as no surprise that he publishes a socially impaired
book about a writer who has spent a decade holed up alone in a cabin, and
calls it "Seymour: an Introduction".
The Phantom Menace is another superb example. Before seeing it (sorry, it's
a job requirement where I work), I saw a 20/20 special on the making of the
movie that indicated that Lucas exercised absolute "artistic" control over
the film. The result was the worst movie ever made. The characters, the
dialog, the story couldn't have been any less engaging. Without the special
effects, the film would have been more boring than a 16 hour documentary of
someone reading Catcher. I'm with Anthony Lane - this movie is crap.
-Sean