Re: new person, no one will read this i've been here before

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 22:49:17 -0500 

> OK i used to be on this thing but then I got off because it felt bad,
> but then i read Ian Hamiltons little masterpiece and I was just
> wondering ------ because of this SPEACH (yes, pallex, yes this is me) is
> salinger a terrible guy?  I mean, sense he's everyone in his books, that
> DOES mean he's seymour, the poet-saint, which means he's better than the
> rest of us, too, because writers write
> for everyone, right?  if anyone knows what i mean, PLEASE
> RESPOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think many writers bring to the page some of who they are, and it's
certainly possible that Salinger carries a little bit of Seymour in him,
and a bit of Buddy, and a bit of the Fat Lady too.

I don't know if he thinks he's "too good to even be a WRITER anymore,"
though it's certainly plausible that he became disgusted by the publicity
antics of his time, and withdrew in disgust for that and other reasons.

I think it's also safe to say that he's probably a complex man who carries
plenty of contradictions in himself, as most of us do.  I don't know enough
about him to say more than that, other than to speculate.

I don't know if he's a terrible man.  Plenty of great writers have been
bastards in real life, but many more bastards in real life have not turned
out to be writers.  He's just a guy like anyone else.  He's not a god, or a
Wise Man of the Mountain, or a prophet, although it's not surprising when
people imagine that he is.  As you gain more experience in life, I think
you expect less god-ness in people who write wonderful stories or create
other work we love.

To note two people Salinger have mentioned -- Kafka and Van Gogh -- I love
their work immensely, but I don't think I'd claim either was a saint, and I
doubt I'd have wanted to pal around with either of them.  I wouldn't have
had the patience to cheer Franz through his gloom, and I wouldn't have had
the energy to match Vincent.

But I love their work, without needing to make more of them than they were.
So it is with Salinger.  Like a few other writers, he has written work that
touched me, that moved me, and that in some way defined how I look at the
world.  But in the end, it's just wonderful work by a man I don't know.

I'm not sure if that answers your question, but I've done my best.  <*grin*>

--tim o'connor