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J.D. Salinger Dead at 91
- jfoutz 17y agoI'm sad he's gone, 9 stories upset me in ways few books ever have. At the same time, I've wanted to read those unpublished books for a while. I guess he'd be satisfied with a melancholy response.
- lmkg 17y ago> I'm sad he's gone, 9 stories upset me in ways few books ever have. That's the most concise and accurate description of his writing I've seen. His works are... unsettling, and the value of reading them comes from figuring out why, which can sometimes be very difficult. I've read very few authors that can force introspection the way JD Salinger could. This is also why it's (rightly!) considered dangerous to read.
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoIf you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
- prakash 17y agoWow! Catcher in the Rye is still an excellent book.
- mahmud 17y agoLiterary works are judged against the backdrop of their place and time. If a work is deemed "excellent" for its era, it remains so for all others; even if proven unworthy later, it retains its place in history as the once great literary work (the average personal library is full of has-been literature.) A work might increase in "excellence", if newer works reach back to it for influence, or if the work is deemed prophetic, predicting the norms and realities of a later era.
- prakash 17y agoMahmud, thank you for explaining that.
- jamesbritt 17y agoYeah, he's a goddamn prince.
- balding_n_tired 17y agoWithin a year of the age of Louis Auchinschloss, also just dead. Yet what different writers. I liked the story called (I think) "The Laughing Man" in the nine stories. The rest less so.
- retro 17y agoRIP. However, I hope this will make it easier for derivative works to be published. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/books/02salinger.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/books/02salinger.html
- rwmj 17y agoDoes anyone else think Catcher in the Rye was a load of rubbish? I had no sympathy whatsoever for the main character and found the book frankly boring.
- abscondment 17y agoAgreed.
- mynameishere 17y agoThere are a few books whose everlasting fame eludes me. "On the Road" and "The Great Gatsby" and "Catcher in the Rye" all provided mystifying reads...because they are supposed to be great and manifestly are not.
- alanthonyc 17y agoSame here about "Catcher in the Rye" (although I only read it once). I've heard that it's a generational thing. Times were supposedly different when it was first written. As for me, I didn't get it. I liked "The Great Gatsby" though.
- zmonteca 17y agoI thought all three were excellent. Of the three Great Gatsby was by far my favorite. How can you not love the typically millionaire who has it all and suddenly kills himself. He should have realized he could have just bought a russian bride.
- edw519 17y agoSchool, before "Catcher in the Rye": "Children, listen to us and do as we say. This is the way the world is." Life, after "Catcher in the Rye": "The world is not cast in concrete. It's OK to question authority. You're not the only one." I've been living my life like that ever since. I don't know if that was JDS's intent, but it sure was the effect. RIP
- divia 17y agoRIP indeed, though I can't help but think of this passage from The Catcher in the Rye: That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose. Try it sometime. I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say “Holden Caulfield” on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it'll say “Fuck you.” I'm positive, in fact.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- dpapathanasiou 17y agoI was (pleasantly) surprised when my 9th grade English teacher put this on book on the assignments list, since most of the other teachers at my school would have avoided it for its themes and language. It was also amusing to see the class reaction when he tried discussing it in class. Most people hadn't read it, and when he tried to get our reactions to some of the more taboo stuff, everyone's facial expression changed to "I've got to go read this now".
- mlLK 17y agoOne of my favorite quotes: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=404402 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=404402 Even if the public hardly knew you, we knew you through your work, and will always remember you through the characters you shared with us. Their insight and perspective will continue to remind those lost in adolescence, the adult world, or the nostalgia of innocence that they are not alone. RIP
- jeffreyg 17y agoNine Stories is amazing. RIP
- mlLK 17y agoEspecially Teddy. He was like this darker, fantastic exaggeration of Holden.
- kingkongreveng_ 17y agoThis is a good and somewhat famous short story, pre "Catcher": A Perfect Day for Bananafish http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/perfectday.html http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/perfectday.html
- inc 17y agoAlso: Teddy http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/teddy.html http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/teddy.html
- bugs 17y agoThat story always messes with me when I read it. It is almost like it overwhelms my senses and I'm not a very big fan of catcher in the rye but Franny and Zooey was interesting.
- theblackbox 17y ago"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life." Chapter 25, pg. 198
- docgnome 17y agoStrange, I just read the first two chapters of Catcher in the Rye at the local coffee shop... It was gonna be next on my list when I finish On the Road.
- dantheman 17y agoI enjoyed his books greatly, not just for the story, but for the mere enjoyment of reading his prose. I enjoyed Nine Stories & Franny ans Zooey the most of all. I've heard that he never stopped writing, and that he has quite a few works that have yet to be published. Hopefully those works will see the light of day now.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mcantor 17y agoMOST stories.
- trin_ 17y agoBoy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. matching quote from the book imho. reading the quotes at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye really brings back the memories.
- revorad 17y agoThis makes me sad in a Caulfield kind of way.
- barnaby 17y agoI thought yesterdays obituary for Howard Zinn was a bigger news story than this... because, well, most people thought Salinger was already dead.
- zzzmarcus 17y ago"The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs--if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't. You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do."
- alex_c 17y agoI just want to leave this here: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_j_d http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_... Possibly the first time an Onion article is... appropriate?