Re: the literary life

WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:57:45 -0600 (MDT) 

As usual, I find myself at odds with scottie, though with respect.  In
some ways I think Joyce Maynard is a text we read differently, and I'm
including both her book tour show and her book and her web page discussion
bulletin board, as "the text."  I admire book writers.  Anyone who writes
one gets my "hat's off."  And from there, my interests and preferences are
my own.  I read _At Home in the World_ and found it well written but
boring and lacking analytical reflection of the kind that might have made
it worthile to know.  I sense the voice of the writer and her world and
don't buy the reasoning.  I teach argumentation and logic and tend to get
hung up on persuasive rhetoric...

First let me admit that beyond respecting Ms.Maynard's writing
accomplishments, I  think she has every right to write about Mr. Salinger. 

But I don't think it's fair to make judgments as Scottie has about Mr.
Salinger's "cheek" based on one side of a very old love affair.  I also
think Ms. Maynard's inclusion of Salinger's interpretation of her writing
is probably not off its mark in describing  Ms. Maynard's with several
negative modifiers before the noun, _gossip_.  

I've listened to Ms. Maynard on her web page attack "venemous" critics but
not heard her talk about how that's good for business.  I've heard her
attack interest in Salinger as misreading her book when I still think the
Salinger info is the only interesting part of it (she uses Mr. Salinger at
both beginning and ending of her book).   I've listened to Ms. Maynard
generalize against relationships such as hers with Salinger and on her own
page I've read posts from "may/december" folks contradicting her
assertion...all in all, I think her text has gained more attention than it
merits, but that's my opinion based on my reading of "the text" knowing
other texts and interpretations are only natural.

It may well be that Mr. Salinger is not the groovy character his
characters are...he's human, you know...I don't think writing some good
fiction entitles the world to pick you apart if you can avoid it...and I
do think staying with his fiction and experiencing it is where the real
fun is anyway...maybe the joke is on us who expect flesh and blood of
paper and ink, or even pixels and electrons...;)will