Salinger photos

Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Sun, 23 Nov 1997 15:43:23 -0600 (CST) 

D wrote:

>    I just had to chime into this thread about JDS pics.  I have the Life
> magazine from Nov. 3 1961 that has the Ernest Havemann piece on JDS. The
> article is titled "The Search for the Mysterious J.D. Salinger".  There
> are several photographs....

I've never seen it, but I think there was one taken of him in the the mid-
to late-eighties.  I've heard quite a bit about it because that pic went
on to inspire (in part, at least) Don DeLillo's book, MAO II.  DeLillo
just published a new book, UNDERWORLD, and gave a very rare interview for
THE NEW YORKER (DeLillo is not so reclusive as Salinger, but he's a hermit
by industry standards) in which he talked about that picture and the
effect it had on him.  I will go try to find it, in case someone wants to
know more.

Well, I wasn't able to track it down, but I know it came after the Sept. 
8 issue, which has an excerpt from the novel.  So if you want to check it
out, it shouldn't be too hard to find. 

If I remember correctly, what struck DeLillo about the photo is Salinger's
expression: the total fear and disgust and frustration he felt at being
ambushed by a camera.  MAO II, in turn, is a book about public notoriety
and the various implications of various people's dependence on it.  The
plight of a reclusive novelist (the main character) is compared with that
of political terrorists -- who are also dependent on attention from a
news-media kept at arm's length -- and the media are compared with the
terrorists, as well.  It's very interesting, and I would recommend it or
anything else by DeLillo -- especially WHITE NOISE, which is one of my
very favorite books. 

Jon
_______________________________________________
"You know how it feels to know you're not real"

                           The Apples in Stereo


PS: Just for the hell of it, here are some others on my list of very
favorite books (in no particular order):

	* THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, Milan Kundera
	* THE INVISIBLE MAN, Ralph Ellison
	* ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
	* SONG OF SOLOMON, Toni Morrison
	* THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (of course)
	* 40 STORIES, Donald Barthelme
	* THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Steinbeck

Comments, private or public, will be warmly accepted.