Re: Salinger's "no-fluff tone"
john v. omlor (omlor@packet.net)
Sun, 15 Nov 1998 14:02:40 -0500
>---patrick flaherty <pfkw@email.msn.com> wrote:
>>
>> So, Salinger in like a nice, dry chianti and Fitzgerald is a more
>> full-bodied zinfandel?
Funny, I was just reading Fitzgerald's short story "Head and Shoulders"
last night in the lobby bar of an 1920's hotel on the Gulf of Mexico and I
was thinking how very much like Salinger the first half of the story is
(the dramatic reversal and cutesy ending that complete the story mark the
diefference between the two as short story writers anyway -- though I think
the F. story still works on its own). The child as intellectual-prodigy
encountering the sensual world, etc. seems all very much like JD. The
similarities and differences are both telling in this case, I think. What
is amazing to me in the Fitz. short stuff is the pure description and the
brilliant use of color (that opening paragraph or page of "Off-Shore
Pirate" for instance).
Finally, regarding "fluff" or no fluff. I assume we're not talking here
about sandwich spread nor about the practice used to keep certain
performers "ready" in between takes during the shooting of porn films. To
"fluff," as some of you more lascivious people out there are doubtless
aware, is now a full time profession for certain people in the adult
entertainment industry.
Well that's all from here where it is so nice and warm and sunny out that I
am haunted by my mothers' voice ("Why are you inside on a day like today?
Go out and play.").
--John