Re: 'the hours'

I didn't quite react that strongly. It just seemed...weird. I think I can
understand what you mean by vampirish. It was as if Kinsella were
supplanting Salinger's "real life" or real identity or whatever it is.

I think I don't react to this as strongly as you do because I see everyone
doing the same thing for everyone else -- and not just fans imagining what
they're favorite authors are "really" like, but how we view our friends,
the people we love, the people we work with, etc. We construct images of
them and assumptions about them that may or may not be true -- and are
sometimes complete fictions. What Kinsella did differently than most
people is write a book representing his vision of Salinger -- that's all.
Even if we just keep ours in our head, we're being vampirish in the same
way unless we really take the time to allow the real person to interfere
with the contruct in our heads.

So I think it's a mistake to take too strong issue with people that do
this. I guess that's what felt weird about the whole thing. I was seeing
a less than conscious process out there in the open, right in front of me.
Like watching a person walking around with their chest cut open. But for
this reason I also think it's a mistake to not want people to mess with the
ideas we have in our heads about other real people out there -- like
novelists, etc. There's a chance they're seeing facets of the real thing
we hadn't considered.

Kinsella had a great story with bad characters. It was inferior as a
novel. The wife character was pathetic -- just a one line mantra of
support for her husband and no real personality beyond that. Those flaws
bothered me a lot more than the Salinger thing. At least the movie fixed
the flaws in the book....

Jim

Kim Johnson wrote:

> --- James Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I'm thinking how I felt when I read Kinsella's
> > _Shoeless Joe Jackson_
> > -- there was something a bit unnerving to me about
> > reading a fictional
> > representation of a real person. I suspect I might
> > feel the same
> > reading the book...
> >
> >
>
> yes, i find what writers like cunningham did ghoulish;
> what writers like kinsella did vampirish.
>
> kim
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
> http://launch.yahoo.com/u2
> -
> * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
> * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH

-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Wed Nov 13 15:08:18 2002