
Salinger's Nightmare: An unemployed actor tracked down Salinger - samclemens
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/04/13/salingers-nightmare/
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aphextron
Imagine being Salinger. You spend your entire life railing against society and
trying to get away from it all, only to be hounded by hordes of precocious
fanboys for the rest of your days. The irony and futility of it is depressing.

~~~
LordKano
That's a risk than an artist assumes when he or she publishes a work.

In the past 10 years, I have met the director of my favorite film and my
favorite musician. I tried to be as respectful of their privacy as possible
but still wanted to say hello and tell them how much I appreciated their
artistic endeavors. They were both gracious and I tried not to take more than
a minute or so of their time.

If you want obscure anonymity, don't publish art. Especially not under your
own name.

~~~
theothermkn
> If you want obscure anonymity, don't publish art. Especially not under your
> own name.

I would imagine that it makes it worse that they meet their rudest and most
entitled fans, through a rigorous process of self-selection.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
Well, that's why these celebrities do interviews and other things, so that
there's no fandom allure of being the top asshole who can stalk these
'private' celebs. I think if you want to play up a, equally pretentious,
attitude of "Oh, I'm off the grid as far as you're concerned," expect someone
to make it his life mission to say, "No, you're not."

I personally don't believe you can sell millions of books and bask in that
kind of wealth and fame and feel no obligation to pay it back via interviews,
columns, workshops, etc. Its something of an anarchism, this whole 'tortured
pure and private artist' when historically artists were public personas their
whole lives and paid back to the community in a variety of ways. I suspect
these old social systems still make sense today, outside of the stalker fanboy
argument, and are just basic human decency to give a little back to the
community of fans who have enriched you so.

There's a "jackpot lottery" aspect here of producing a best seller then just
quitting everything and enjoying being a multi-millionaire for life. It stinks
of soulless commercial artists just looking for that big check to cash out.
Not sure why I would feel any need to respect those kinds of people. If they,
heaven forbid, need to say hi to a fan every decade, I think they'll survive.
It's unbelievably entitled to have a "I will not make eye contact with those
below my station like fans of my work" attitude. Sorry, no man is an island.

~~~
Isamu
> bask in that kind of wealth and fame

Is it hard to believe that some just people just want to write for a living?
Striking it rich as an author is kind of an moonshot, an absurd dream.

Would you say to yourself, gee, I'd like to write, but better not because I'd
hate all that comes with fame and fortune.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I do write and I can't imagine not having a certain level of engagement with
the community.

Also, we're not talking being on TV 24/7, but answering the occasional
interview request or email. I really think there's a difference between the
'recluse artiste who can't be bothered' and the 'I don't want to be a
celebrity but I'll do a phone interview once in a while.' They're not the
same. No one is saying you need to be in a reality TV show if you want to
write. I am saying you do need a certain level of engagement and that's a
natural part of being an artist. The pretentious "genius auteur who can't
stand talking to mere mortals" is some kind sociopathy or ridiculous self-
entitlement that doesn't deserve to be respected.

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pokler
Let me know when someone is able to track down Thomas Pynchon.

~~~
cafard
I cannot now find the reference, but sometime in the last six months, an
article about the fuss around Elena Ferrante and her civilian identity
mentioned Pynchon, saying that quite a few people in the NY publishing world
knew who Pynchon was and how to find him. They simply respected his privacy
and didn't talk about him.

------
douche
It was a common story when I was at Dartmouth for people to claim that they
had seen JD Salinger in the periodicals room at Baker-Berry Library.

