further revelations
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Fri, 11 Sep 1998 08:31:07 +0000
I suspect compulsiveness is a personality trait of most writers,
not just Salinger. A real writer can hardly ever stop. And we
already know about that room-sized safe filling up with paper.
But one obvious explanation for his refusal to publish is never
addressed on this list: that the stuff may be - to his mind - simply
not good enough. And he could be right.
For me, an obvious parallel is Hemingway. How vividly I remember
the years passing as we all waited for the one that was promised
after For Whom the Bell Tolls - the long-presaged `Big One', the one
that was going to express some final truths about `the land &
the sea & the air....'
Some of us began to suspect he was reluctant to go out into
the really deep water ever again. And why not ? He'd already done
his share.
But eventually arrived Across the River & into the Trees - a parody
of himself that only we, his acolytes, enjoyed. And The Old Man &
the Sea - a contrived yarn sufficiently respectable to win the Nobel
but now recognised as a symbol-sunk lead weight. After his suicide,
the remaining vast load of unpublished material was examined,
pruned, slapped about, rejigged & released to an embarassed public
by his family & hangers-on.
Three tons of junk.
Isn't possible that Salinger - with the same insight - wants to
avoid the same fate ?
Scottie B.