With all the hand-wringing over the possibility that Salinger might not allow his (possibly non-existent) works die with him, I'm surprised there was no mention of Kafka. Kafka, after all, famously instructed his friend Max Brod to destroy all his works upon his death. When the time came, Brod agonized over the promise he'd made, and ultimately decided not to honor that promise. Later, Brod was able to use the unpublished manuscripts as a bargaining chip to get sponsorship as an American emigrant, and thus escape the holocaust. It was a deal brokered partly by Thomas Mann and the American PEN club.
This "after story" is almost another Kafka plot, and it's because of Brod's broken promise that we can still read much of Kafka's work.
-- EbenCooke
(To reply, click here)
Rosenbaum explains why an unequivocally important work appears to be a shallow, adolescent novel: it uses an unreliable narrator, a troubled teen in the late 40's. Likely it is somewhat autobiographical. There are a startling number of hilarious, touching, sad and poignant moments to be found for such a short novel. His use of teen vernacular of the time is evocative and timeless. To identify with it, it is probably best to be a troubled young person or an empathetic older person who has been through it. There are many untroubled people who could never identify with such a character.
In context, it addresses mental illness in a unique way for the time period; as the rebellion of a sensitive, creative mind against the necessary shallowness of the real world. Much of Nine Stories addresses the same issue, while Franny and Zooey actually seems to offer a solution. I think Salinger's last few published works demonstrate a relapse and his own personal lack of ability to come to terms with the real world. I suspect modern research and identification of Asperger's Syndrome might have something relevant to say about Holden Caulfield, and perhaps J.D. Salinger, that was unavailable to people in the 50's.
-- bsharporflat
(To reply, click here)
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With all the hand-wringing over the possibility that Salinger might not allow his (possibly non-existent) works die with him, I'm surprised there was no mention of Kafka. Kafka, after all, famously instructed his friend Max Brod to destroy all his works upon his death. When the time came, Brod agonized over the promise he'd made, and ultimately decided not to honor that promise. Later, Brod was able to use the unpublished manuscripts as a bargaining chip to get sponsorship as an American emigrant, and thus escape the holocaust. It was a deal brokered partly by Thomas Mann and the American PEN club.
This "after story" is almost another Kafka plot, and it's because of Brod's broken promise that we can still read much of Kafka's work.
-- EbenCooke
(To reply, click here)
Rosenbaum explains why an unequivocally important work appears to be a shallow, adolescent novel: it uses an unreliable narrator, a troubled teen in the late 40's. Likely it is somewhat autobiographical. There are a startling number of hilarious, touching, sad and poignant moments to be found for such a short novel. His use of teen vernacular of the time is evocative and timeless. To identify with it, it is probably best to be a troubled young person or an empathetic older person who has been through it. There are many untroubled people who could never identify with such a character.
In context, it addresses mental illness in a unique way for the time period; as the rebellion of a sensitive, creative mind against the necessary shallowness of the real world. Much of Nine Stories addresses the same issue, while Franny and Zooey actually seems to offer a solution. I think Salinger's last few published works demonstrate a relapse and his own personal lack of ability to come to terms with the real world. I suspect modern research and identification of Asperger's Syndrome might have something relevant to say about Holden Caulfield, and perhaps J.D. Salinger, that was unavailable to people in the 50's.
-- bsharporflat
(To reply, click here)