Re: Salinger's Problem with Westerners?

I am slightly out of date here, so forgive this delayed answer. I
want to respond to only one thing mentioned by Daniel Yocum. (I have
the order of names right, don't I? If not, please forgive me, since I
am myself illiterate on certain things.)

On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 at 03:51:49PM -0000, Yocum Daniel GS 21 CES/CEOE wrote:

> I am not an ignorant person, I love literature but
> criticism in its academic practice doesn't seem to directly help
> understanding, at least for the majority of readers out there.

No, you seem to be entirely NOT an ignorant person, and we love to have
people here who love literature. You are *very* welcome here -- and you
don't need to pass any kind of "criticism test" to join in.

> I joined this list for insights on Salinger's writings based on what
> Salinger was trying to say,

Good, because that is right up our alley!

> promotion. The last is not my intent I just want to talk about Salingers
> stuff, the stories and the stuff in Salingers stuff. I good part of my
> family are literate in spanish only or completly illiterate but they can
> have some incredible insights and not infrequently. If this list is for the
> Literary elite let me know and I will gladly unsubscribe.

No, no, no, no! Do not go gentle into that good night ... you are the
kind of reader and observer and commentator we love to attract.
Notice how much you have churned up the waves since you joined! This
is just great. And there are more than a few of us who have
backgrounds in which books were not important or made any kind of
priority in our houses, growing up. So, welcome to this list, which
is, if anything, a refuge from that kind of personal history. (I hope
it is, anyhow.)

> I hope that is not what this list is for, because some of you have made
> Salinger more interesting to me.

Thanks for appreciating what we collectively try to offer. There will
always be differences of opinion here, as you have seen. I *hope*
there will always be such differences, I should say, by way of
clarification. Without them, there is no spark, with no spark there
is no flame, and with no flame there can be no raging fire. I'm all
for keeping the raging flames away from dry forest and contained as
much as possible in discussions such as our list.

So that goes. Please settle in and make yourself at home, Daniel.
We're glad to have you! Welcome!

--tim o'connor

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Received on Thu Oct 24 19:46:50 2002