Subject: Re: Beginning of Little Dorrit
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Sat Sep 22 2001 - 23:23:36 GMT
Paul, If Warren French was on this list, he'd note your use of "nice"
in describing Salinger as the author's counterbalance to phony. I
think the writers you offer as "masters" have written more than
Salinger and I wondered how much that has to do with our current
assessment thread. I am a poet and tend to think about how less can
be more...I don't want to pit Salinger against all the masters you
mention, but I will, for fun, suggest that in my own reading life,
Salinger has done more for me than Faulkner (who is my wife's
favorite!). I would have to argue that Salinger reaches more deeply
into my spirit with sensibilities of poetry of spirit in his fiction.
And to continue to show my bad taste, with Homer, Dante, and
Shakespeare excepted, the fiction writers you list aren't as much
masters of prose fiction for me as Balzac, another writer I find
extremely interesting to read. I guess what I'm trying to say is that
I wouldn't rule out the case for Salinger's genius. His work is
individual--it's not really been approximated or advanced by another
writer--and because it stands out and stands alone, it may indeed be
the work of a genius based on the ability of the work to sustain
itself. All of which is to say that when we don't define genius or
what it means to be a master, we have to guess through personal
experience who really rings our bells. Will
PS: Phillip Glass has been a personal favorite since the 80s for
me...I used to see him in the East Village and he didn't act like a
genius but I thought he had really done something in music that was,
like Salinger, so individual and so likeable, I couldn't help
admiring the work greatly. I still listen to Einstein on the Beach
with awe and wonder and consider it the great opera of my time.
-- Will HochmanAssistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024
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