RIP JD Salinger

[d_rawk]

Apparently he continued to be very prolific during his seclusion and instructed his daughter that his work could be released posthumously.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

[TheAlphaNerd]

RIP J.D.

Guess we now start the countdown to the release of his material...

[ollie]

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

Gives me chills. RIP.

[allison]

This actually saddened me, and I generally don't give a fuck about people I've never met dying.

Teddy is one of my favourite, if not favourite, short stories ever written and I've had more tattered paperback copies of Franny and Zooey then I can count.

[Hal Johnson]

True story: I read "The Catcher in the Rye" when I was in grade 8 because I thought it would be about baseball. It was a fairly profound moment in my life.

Can't wait to re-read it.

[The Chameleon]

A literary great passes.

R.I.P.

[hamilton]

R.I.P.

I guess I'm the only person here who thinks that "The Catcher In THe Rye" is one of the most over-rated and least interesting books ever elevated to greatness and forced into school curricula everywhere?

[d_rawk]

Hmm .. maybe, but probably not. I never had it in my curricula, so my perspective on it is probably quite different. My soft spot for that book is .. well .. pretty soft.

[hamilton]

Actually, neither have I, either from a learning or a teaching perspective. I didn't read it until i was 28 or 29. But I know it is required high school reading in thousands of school boards across the US.

Admittedly, Salinger did an excellent job of capturing the whiny, I-hate-everyone angst of a teenager, but I find the plot atrociously dull.

The only other book that "everyone" loves and praises that I dislike more is "On The Road". I fully admit that my hatred of these books would be less if they weren't so universally praised. Kind of like Coldplay.

[ollie]

But I know it is required high school reading in thousands of school boards across the US.

I'd count that as a blessing!

Funny enough I never read it in school either. It's way cooler than anything else I did though.

[skelter]

I've never read Catcher In The Rye. I subconciously always blamed the book on twisting Mark David Chapman's mind into murdering John Lennon. I know it's not the book's fault, but I've never been able to stomach the thought of reading it for that reason.

[edger]

.

I fully admit that my hatred of these books would be less if they weren't so universally praised.

You crotchety rogue you. Miss you guys!

[ollie]

Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger

CORNISH, NH—In this big dramatic production that didn't do anyone any good (and was pretty embarrassing, really, if you think about it), thousands upon thousands of phonies across the country mourned the death of author J.D. Salinger, who was 91 years old for crying out loud. "He had a real impact on the literary world and on millions of readers," said hot-shot English professor David Clarke, who is just like the rest of them, and even works at one of those crumby schools that rich people send their kids to so they don't have to look at them for four years. "There will never be another voice like his." Which is exactly the lousy kind of goddamn thing that people say, because really it could mean lots of things, or nothing at all even, and it's just a perfect example of why you should never tell anybody anything.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_j_d