Re: salinger/coupland

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• Maybe in reply to: Sarahhfa@aol.com: "salinger/coupland"

> i think the 'salinger on acid' notion is borne of critics who recognize
that
> coupland is trying to write *modern* stories (of which salinger is
master)...
> faintly, then, people might be inclined to compare the 2...i find
couplands
> stuff ends up lacking finesse...it reads like he went back in and stuck
> paragraphs and pages to lend his novel the sense of erraticism (which is
an
> obvious description of current times) to qualify it as work of 'our
era'...its
> just simple mtv stuff.... 

I don't know that it's so much the modernity of his stories, but just the
(fairly generalised) idea that a long, apparently formless story with lots
of digressions it what he's all about, which we all know is true to a
point, but only to a point. People like having pigeonholes to stick writers
in (especially new writers). Apart from that I think the two men have
totally different styles, anyway. Salinger is definitely a better short
story writer (I've always found Coupland's short story collections very
uneven, with very high highs and very dull and badly constructed lows) But
then again, it's difficult to compare two writers doing similar things but
40-odd years apart.

Camille 
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE
www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
THE INVERTED FOREST
www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest

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• Maybe in reply to: Sarahhfa@aol.com: "salinger/coupland"