PODESTA,Lesley wrote: > Well Malcolm, I wasn't aware that entering into an exchange was > "clogging up" a mailing list. Your response seems over the top to me. > What is making you so angry over a discussion? > Slightly offended, > LP If you want to talk about other authors, fine. But trying to compare them to Salinger (simply because this list uses him as a focal point) or any other author is moot unless you can talk about the work itself and compare things that are comparable to Salinger in a given context (how each author sketches their characters, the way spirituality is used in the texts, whatever), but simply reducing them to the size of their pen is ultimately boring and inconsequential. All of Sappho's output, for example, that survived could fit onto one postcard, but that doesn't diminish her impact on literature to the present day. It shouldn't be, for example, Benny Profane versus Holden Caulfield, but what they have in common (or not) and why (or why not.) THAT is the grist of a good discussion.