Re: BANANAFISH digest 120
anaconda (anaconda@wwa.com)
Thu, 09 Oct 1997 22:51:39 -0400
At 10:25 PM 10/8/97 -0400, Andrew Youn wrote:
>> Oh yeah...and lest I forget, one of the neatest intros to a book:
>> "If there is an amateur reader still left in the world - or anybody
>> who just reads and runs - I ask him or her, with untellable affection
>> and gratitude, to split the dedication of this book four ways with my
>> wife and children."
>
>I also was pleased with his dedication to the amateur reader. But I also
>feel that just by writing to this list, I am stopping being an amateur
>reader and more and more of a damn analyst. I mean, I like his stories
My favorite recollection of the difference of an amateur and professional:
"amateurs just enjoy, professionals are paid"
The professionals are busy writing critiques for Amazon, telling us how
Franny is pregnant. The amateurs are telling us of her spiritual breakdown.
Sometimes a lucky individual actually gets paid for what they enjoy...
but it seems that most true amatuers never earn much for doing what they
enjoy. Somehow that "professionals" always seem to prevail.
>because they're so great, and this is exactly the reason I'm so tempted to
>analyze his stories. It's a dilemma of sorts, because I too, really
When we aren't analyzing, what are we doing?
>But my point is: Salinger doesn't like us talking about Salinger. I don't
>either, in a way, I think that his writing is strictly to be enjoyed and
>not ripped apart. This disturbs me. Thoughts?
Then don't talk about him. I would love to ask him what made him
create his characters, but doubt he would be able to provide an answer.
Yet, the man himself, I say let him be.
>Someone mentioned the cheap volumes of Salinger that you can buy: My
>interpretation of the Little Brown paperback editions of Salinger that
>you see floating around is that they're great - I am sick of paying more
>than ten bucks for a good novel, and this way, his books are accessible to
>more people. They are a bit ugly, but what the hell.
True enough! Especially since I seem to keep funding the purchases
everytime I lend out my books :}
-bob
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anaconda@wwa.com http://miso.wwa.com/~anaconda/cure2.html
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"it's so much darker when a light goes out
than it would have been
if it had never shone"
j. steinbeck
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