
J.D. Salinger Dead at 91 - aditya
http://www.1010wins.com/-Catcher-in-the-Rye--Author-J-D--Salinger-Dead-at-/6229912
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edw519
School, 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
RIP 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._

------
rwmj
Does 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.

~~~
mynameishere
There 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.

~~~
ojbyrne
If by "manifestly" you mean "in your opinion, and despite a lot of critical
acclaim."

~~~
mynameishere
I mean, "as they actually evidenced themselves as I read them", rather than
"by way of conventional view". Obviously I'm talking about my own opinion. I
suspect a book like catcher in the rye would have a hard time getting
published and selling today. Without being preceded by its acclaim, most
readers would think it ho-hum.

This is true of a lot of things, though. Take Shakespeare's comedies. They
aren't funny. A modern Shakespeare audience laughs at the jokes even though
they already see them coming (having read the play multiple times already).
This is the opposite of normal experience. I won't laugh much at a genuinely
funny comedy if I've already seen it 10 times, so why would I laugh at
500-year-old puns that I've heard before...when even the best puns rarely
cause laughter the first time?

~~~
ojbyrne
I don't think that's really an apt comparison. Shakespeare's comedies haven't
really aged well (it's a bit like watching comedy from the 1970s - you miss
all the context). The tragedies age much better.

And concerning "getting published and selling today" - Sarah Palin gets
published. That doesn't mean that what she writes is anything other than
trash.

------
RyanMcGreal
If 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.

------
jfoutz
I'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
> 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.

------
alex_c
I just want to leave this here:

[http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_...](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_j_d)

Possibly the first time an Onion article is... appropriate?

------
trin_
Boy, 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> really brings back the
memories.

------
dantheman
I 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.

------
theblackbox
"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

------
jeffreyg
Nine Stories is amazing. RIP

~~~
mlLK
Especially Teddy. He was like this darker, fantastic exaggeration of Holden.

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retro
RIP. However, I hope this will make it easier for derivative works to be
published. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/books/02salinger.html>

------
barnaby
I thought yesterdays obituary for Howard Zinn was a bigger news story than
this... because, well, most people thought Salinger was already dead.

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zzzmarcus
"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."

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balding_n_tired
Within 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.

------
docgnome
Strange, 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.

------
prakash
Wow! Catcher in the Rye is still an excellent book.

~~~
mahmud
Literary 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
Mahmud, thank you for explaining that.

~~~
jamesbritt
Yeah, he's a goddamn prince.

------
revorad
This makes me sad in a Caulfield kind of way.

------
kingkongreveng_
This is a good and somewhat famous short story, pre "Catcher":

A Perfect Day for Bananafish
<http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/perfectday.html>

~~~
inc
Also: Teddy <http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/teddy.html>

