Re: pynchon/salinger letters in nytimes article

AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Tue, 24 Mar 1998 07:14:33 -0500 (EST) 

In a message dated 98-03-24 01:38:35 EST, you write:

> Oh, I've read them all, including the scatological ones.  The thing is that
>  I love J.J., in a kind of personal way, the way I love some of my eccentric
>  relatives in Ireland and elsewhere.  Some of Joyce *is* embarrassing -- I
>  would not be keen on marching up to a microphone and reading some
>  selections in front of an audience -- but I adore seeing someone express
>  love and desire genuinely.  And I'd rather read Joyce at his most
>  "objectionable" than hear about old Prince Charlie and his, ah,
>  affectionate tamponic feelings about his lady love.
>  
>  Joyce at his epistolary "worst" (the letters in question do not bother me)
>  still breathes a kind of life into the page in a way few writers could hope
>  to do.  I guess I don't observe a lot of passion in life, or live passion
>  either, and to see *his* is just lovely and basic and human and endearing.
>  
>  Or maybe I'm an odd bird myself.  <another grin>
>  
>  > good job avoiding the mines :)
>  
>  Many thanks.  I nearly wore out the DELETE key.
>  
>  --tim
>  

Yeah, I guess this does come down to personal preferences.  I think James was
a selfish jackass.  Nora did too after awhile.  The letters I'm concerned
about didn't seem terribly affectionate to me, just pornographic.  Of course,
if Nora enjoyed them at the time, well, then who am I to complain? :)  I am
saying this not being bothered at all by anything I read in _Ulysses_ (ok, I
admit the first time I read it I felt like I wanted to give my mind a bath.
But I was much younger then.  The last time I read it I thought, "What was the
big deal?") or elsewhere.  And I also say this knowing that Joyce has been
given a lot of grief by Overly Sensitive critics, and I sure don't want to
join their ranks.

But I also know Stephen Joyce was irked by Richard Ellmann's publication of
the rest of the letters.  I don't blame him.  But of course, now that the
letters have been published, we "have" all read them, haven't we? :)

wink wink

Your Partner in Crime,

Jim