Re: documentary on salinger?

On Sun, Nov 10, 2002 at 05:32:45PM -0000, Scottie Bowman wrote:

> You have the advantage of me in that I must rely
> on my memory of something seen two (?) years ago,
> & maybe longer. And that memory is of feeling more kindly
> disposed than you evidently were.

Point granted, absolutely.

> For Pete's sake, this was aimed at a non-specialist audience -
> people, believe it or not, who in England at least, had probably
> only the haziest idea who JDS might be.

That's true, sure.

I'm certain that my reaction was far more visceral than it had a right
to be.

> Why WOULDN'T they mention those same pre-Lolitas?
> They are, after all, the tiny bones that stick most stubbornly
> in the craw of his acolytes on this very list.

Not me -- I think it's reasonable to hold him to it, but I thought it
was lurid the way they presented it.

> At least, you tell me,
> they read out Holden's WORDS (the Text, the Text) But
> the INTONATION was wrong. Oh dear, deary me.

Well, first off, I'm not one of those "the text, the text" people, so
please don't hold me to that business or lump me in with them. It was
exactly the way you feel when you hear Hemingway read all wrong.
Surely you'll grant me that reading the "In Our Time" stories aloud is
something that can be utterly killed if the presentation is lousy? Bad
aural Hemingway can be as terrible as those "bad Hemingway" imitation
contests.

> As for that naughty spy camera. The only thing wrong with it
> was the tiresomeness of watching another bunch of suckers
> fall for the hunted-haunted, antelope-artist gimmick yet again.

Yes -- and really, I thought it ... distasteful.

> And I REMAIN persuaded that the experience of war did
> much to turn JDS into an artist - just as it did for Cervantes,
> Tolstoy, Hem, and - OK, Robbie? - Homer.

Well, on that we certainly agree. That is a point I have made here
countless times. I suspect that the Hurtgen Forest episode alone did
more to shape our boy than a hundred classes at Columbia with Whit
Burnett or anyone else. How could it be otherwise?

So -- perhaps we are not as far apart as it might first have seemed.

Anyway, I stupidly bought an audiobook that contained some Hemingway
voice recordings, but also The Old Man and the Sea and a few stories
read by Charlton Heston. It was agony to hear Santiago's story
through the lips of old Moses himself. Just as the faux-naif Holden
in that documentary really killed it. For me, anyway. For me. I am
not so arrogant as to assert that my experience of it is once and for
all the authoritative reaction to the BBC documentary in question.
It was simply my reaction. For better or worse, to be disagreed with
or not. So it goes....

Cheers.

--tim

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Received on Sun Nov 10 14:56:15 2002