J.D. Salinger

[abcdefz]

Boy, am I a morbid, selfish bastard.


...Salinger will be 87 on January 1.

At some point fairly soon, he'll die, and it's likely that one of his kids will sell publishing rights to stuff in the safe in the bunker. (I mean, Matty did star in a Roger Corman movie as Captain America, for cryin' out loud!).

Hmmm.....




What's in the booooooooxxxxxxxx!?!?

[cookiepuss]

I think that will be a very sad day if his son doesn't respect his wishes.


ya know what we could do A-Z? When saliger dies we could all go to his place, steal the manucripts and burn em up! ha! HA! I mean if he wrote that stuff for himself and doesn't want anyone to read it, I think we should protect his rights...... I mean as awesome aas it would be to read that stuff, I wouldn't want to , it'd be wrong.

then again J.D. is perty smart... I bet he'll burn all his stuff himself while lying on his death bed. (y)

[cosmo105]

87? damn. i can't believe he's still kickin'. you know, i still have no clue what he looks like.

i never got around to finishing Nine Stories.

i actually got into him when i was about 16 all because of this boy i had a huge crush on. he told me to read salinger, so you can bet your sweet, sweet ass i did. *sigh* oh mikey...why did you have to be so much older?

[abcdefz]

I think that will be a very sad day if his son doesn't respect his wishes.


ya know what we could do A-Z? When saliger dies we could all go to his place, steal the manucripts and burn em up! ha! HA! I mean if he wrote that stuff for himself and doesn't want anyone to read it, I think we should protect his rights...... I mean as awesome aas it would be to read that stuff, I wouldn't want to , it'd be wrong.

then again J.D. is perty smart... I bet he'll burn all his stuff himself while lying on his death bed. (y)




..do you realize we wouldn't have Kafka's novels if his wife had burned the manuscripts as he'd asked?

Just curious. What are your thoughts?

[abcdefz]

87? damn. i can't believe he's still kickin'. you know, i still have no clue what he looks like.

i never got around to finishing Nine Stories.



Fairly recent photo (http://weeklyreader.org/images/salinger.jpeg)



...do you remember if you read "The Laughing Man," or "For Esmé With Love and Squalor"?

[cookiepuss]

well the thing is...and i really don't know the Kafka story so I don't know if he had published before his death, but with salinger...he has already published the works he wanted to give us. and he has said he has nothing more to say in terms of publishing works for the masses. I respect that.

Margaret Mitchel was hounded to write a sequel to Gone with the Wind and she refused saying the story was complete and that she did not know if scarlette ever got Rhett back or not. I respect when and author feels they've gone far enough and given everything they have to give.


whatever is in Salinger's vault might be the most brilliant things ever written or they could be the biggest disapointments ever. I like not knowing which it is. (y)

[cosmo105]

Fairly recent photo (http://weeklyreader.org/images/salinger.jpeg)



...do you remember if you read "The Laughing Man," or "For Esmé With Love and Squalor"?
i know i read the first, and i think i read that one too. it's been a while, yo.

[abcdefz]

Beg your pardon: it wasn't his wife -- it was his friend and editor.


"Most of [Kafka's] work was published posthumously by his friend and editor Max Brod (who ignored Kafka's request to destroy them)."



...regardless of how much was published already, it was Kafka's request that everything else be destroyed; that includes The Trial and The Castle, two of his major pieces.

Should his friend have destroyed them? That was what Kafka wanted.

I'm not trying to trap you -- I think it's an interesting and shitty dilemna.

My response would've been "destroy them yourself" if he were able. Don't put that on somebody else.

If Salinger wants the rest of his stuff unpublished, he needs to burn it.

[apparatus]

Beg your pardon: it wasn't his wife -- it was his friend and editor.
My response would've been "destroy them yourself" if he were able. Don't put that on somebody else.

If Salinger wants the rest of his stuff unpublished, he needs to burn it.

Yeah.. Once he's dead, it won't matter anymore to him anyway, so what's the problem? Not respecting someone's wishes posthumously is just a problem for those that stay alive.

[abcdefz]

i know i read the first, and i think i read that one too. it's been a while, yo.



Yo.

[cookiepuss]

I'm not trying to trap you -- I think it's an interesting and shitty dilemna.

My response would've been "destroy them yourself" if he were able. Don't put that on somebody else.

If Salinger wants the rest of his stuff unpublished, he needs to burn it.


agreed, by not taking it into thier own hands, they are at least at the subcounsious level holding on to that work...maybe it's egotism, maybe it's alot of things, but likely they have some doubts about the works purpose if they don't destroy it.

still if someone walked up to me right now with an evelope and said "here, this is J.D. 's unpublished works." I don't think I'd open it. it would be really really dificult, but again like I said I think I would rater keep the mystery than be dispointed by the reality.

[abcdefz]

agreed, by not taking it into thier own hands, they are at least at the subcounsious level holding on to that work...maybe it's egotism, maybe it's alot of things, but likely they have some doubts about the works purpose if they don't destroy it.

still if someone walked up to me right now with an evelope and said "here, this is J.D. 's unpublished works." I don't think I'd open it. it would be really really dificult, but again like I said I think I would rater keep the mystery than be dispointed by the reality.



Oh, I'd at least read it.

If someone, on their deathbed, said "You're the custodian; promise me you'll destroy everything" I'd have to say that I couldn't promise it.

No one's dying breath is going to be enough to maniuplate me about something that important.

[cookiepuss]

it's difficult because importance is subjective. The works may or may not have a profound affect on anyone and there just no way of knowing, until it's too late. Pandora's box if you will.

I think it of it in similar terms of why I don't like open caskets at funerals. that person's dead body, as real as it may be, is not how I want to remeber them and so I don't choose to view it. An authors works could be a big stinking courpse, and if they specifically said I don't want you to see my courpse I don't want to be remembered that way, I go along with it.


then again it's just a bunch of words on paper...so maybe all parties involved are makinga big deal of nothing

[MC Moot]

I think "Catcher in the Rye" may be the most overrated piece of American literature ever written...not that I don't think the man has great merit....I'll mourn like I did Heller and Hunter S,I guess :(

[abcdefz]

I think "Catcher in the Rye" may be the most overrated piece of American literature ever written...not that I don't think the man has great merit....I'll mourn like I did Heller and Hunter S,I guess :(



You're probably one of those folks who thinks Citizen Kane is no big deal, either -- right? :D

[wanton wench]

it's difficult because importance is subjective. The works may or may not have a profound affect on anyone and there just no way of knowing, until it's too late. Pandora's box if you will.

I think it of it in similar terms of why I don't like open caskets at funerals. that person's dead body, as real as it may be, is not how I want to remeber them and so I don't choose to view it. An authors works could be a big stinking courpse, and if they specifically said I don't want you to see my courpse I don't want to be remembered that way, I go along with it.


then again it's just a bunch of words on paper...so maybe all parties involved are makinga big deal of nothing
some people need to see the lifeless body to accept they are really dead!

[abcdefz]

some people need to see the lifeless body to accept they are really dead!



...what if someone, on their deathbed, realizes the old "manuscript pyre" thing is a sort of artistic suicide and wants to take it back?


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[wanton wench]

...what if someone, on their deathbed, realizes the old "manuscript pyre" thing is a sort of artistic suicide and wants to take it back?


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oops!

[MC Moot]

You're probably one of those folks who thinks Citizen Kane is no big deal, either -- right? :D


oh no...Citizen Kane is fantastic,Rosebud...it's Casablanca I take issue with ;)