Thursday, January 01, 2009

If a 90 Year-Old Falls in the Woods...


... and no one is there to blow out the birthday candles would he really be a year older?

If the birthday boy in question is JD Salinger then the answer is.... I have no idea. As the NYT's rightly notes the reclusive Salinger makes Thomas Pynchon seem like a gadabout. Easily America's most famous living author, the cloistered old kook has been seen by virtually no one since he bolted the doors on his New Hampshire hideaway. That he values his anonymity-obscurity is not curious but the unanswerable question about what he is doing vexes the literary world. Has be been working, and does he continue to write ? Is there more of the Glass family for greedy fans to enjoy? And if perchance there is more, will anyone ever be able to read what he has been working on these long 40 years? No one seems to have any answers and no one knows what JD Salinger is doing for his birthday today though most would agree it's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"

So keep on coming through the rye on this birthday Mr Salinger and please don't fall cause no one is gonna be there to catch you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

does anyone still really read the catcher in the rye? what the fuck does the title even mean

Unknown said...

I read it about a year ago in honor of Trace naming his kid Holden Crutchfield... it's a great little read and when my kid is old enough to get through it, he'll damn well read it too. The title refers to a song Holden Caufield hears another kid singing... it has to do with protecting innocence; saving kids from 'falling off the cliff' from childhood to 'phony' adulthood.

Is Salinger the literary version of Syd Barret?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone actually seen him in years?

 

the running mule

the running mule