Finally, more J.D. Salinger ... soon-ish

[pynch]

Matt Salinger, son of J.D. Salinger and in charge of his literary estate, in an interview with The Guardian:

“all of what he wrote will at some point be shared”

Guardian article

[issybird]

There are more photos available of him now, also.

https://www.nhpr.org/post/unseen-jd-...y-unh#stream/0

[frahse]

I'm not a fan.

The angst, loss and dread ethos caused by human frailty, greed and viciousness is not a thing I seek in literature.

[Prestidigitweeze]

I seek explorations of frailty, loss and viciousness that also navigate the outliers of empathy. Failure can be a more precise indicator than success, as Flaubert demonstrated in nearly every story he wrote.

My main issue with J.D. might be this: I object to his editorializing in the form of disillusioned interior monologues.

Salinger seems to privilege certain characters whom he feels to be morally superior, which in my view is the problem with choosing the Christ model for fiction: too often, you end up depicting virtue in the form of a self-portrait, which is not what an artist like Durer is really doing. And I tire of being expected to identify with main characters uncritically. Nabokov understood the vanity of that expectation.

But that doesn't mean new work by Salinger is unwelcome. His limitations and (in my view) ethical myopia don't cancel out his genius.

I can't recall whether I've mentioned this here before, but if not:

My mother was a high school music and English teacher who used to assign Catcher in the Rye in order to gauge students' understanding of social conformity. She wanted to see whether they recognized Holden Caulfield's depth or dismissed him as an outcast, complainer or twit.

Sadly, it is easy for modern readers to notice they're supposed to like H.C., so I'm not sure my mother's exercise worked beyond the mid-1960s (which is when she began to teach).

Coriolanus might have proved a better gauge.

[WillAdams]

I've always respected Steven Brust's decision to put his own political opinions into characters which he as an author doesn't like, and which he expects to be unsympathetic to the reader --- as he notes, it keeps him honest.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

I've always respected Steven Brust's decision to put his own political opinions into characters which he as an author doesn't like, and which he expects to be unsympathetic to the reader --- as he notes, it keeps him honest.

Novelist Kathy Acker used to teach that method as an exercise: Give ideas you hate to a character you love. Give ideas you believe in to a character who repulses you. Continue to do this until no individual character is wedded to your POV.

[jhowell]

From the NY Times, J.D. Salinger, E-Book Holdout, Joins the Digital Revolution:

This week, in the first step of a broader revival that could reshape the world’s understanding of Salinger and his writing, Little, Brown is publishing digital editions of his four books, making him perhaps the last 20th-century literary icon to surrender to the digital revolution.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by jhowell

This week, in the first step of a broader revival that could reshape the world’s understanding of Salinger and his writing, Little, Brown is publishing digital editions of his four books, making him perhaps the last 20th-century literary icon to surrender to the digital revolution.
From the NY Times, J.D. Salinger, E-Book Holdout, Joins the Digital Revolution:

He's apparently handed out lots of free copies of the ebooks to libraries, so check out your local library (Overdrive)..
By he I mean Matthew Salinger, who's on a publicity drive right now. He really is moving things with respect to JRR Salinger. Truly a Captain America..

[John F]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

He's apparently handed out lots of free copies of the ebooks to libraries, so check out your local library (Overdrive)..
By he I mean Matthew Salinger, who's on a publicity drive right now. He really is moving things with respect to JRR Salinger. Truly a Captain America..

They showed up in my library today, with basically no wait line.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by John F

They showed up in my library today, with basically no wait line.

After waiting ages, I finally borrowed a copy from my library. The wait line was impressive and getting more impressive: last time I looked, 13 people behind me.

[AprilHare]

Matthew Salinger is not being praised in some quarters: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...paranoid-miser

Matt Salinger fancies himself the stalwart protector of his father’s legacy, which includes a tantalizing trove of unpublished manuscripts. But now that it’s clear that it may take 15 years or more before even one manuscript from J.D. Salinger’s safe gets published, Matt is looking less like a dutiful son and more like a paranoid miser.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Matthew Salinger is not being praised in some quarters: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...paranoid-miser

That article is complete crap. Okay, I could only get through half, so it's not fair to call it complete crap. Maybe the second half just sings. But what I did read was awful and Kyle Smith comes off as an a$$hole.

J.D. did not want any of his books released as ebooks. Matt released all those that had previously been published anyway.

Now he's criticized for not releasing more on a schedule Kyle would approve of?