Farewell, J.D. Salinger
28th January 2010
J.D. Salinger, the American novelist and short story writer died at 91. He is perhaps most quickly remembered for The Catcher in the Rye and its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. I enjoyed his short stories as collected in Nine Stories. My most memorable passage from his writing is this from Franny and Zooey:
“One other thing. And that’s all. I promise you. But the thing is, you raved and you bitched when you came home about the stupidity of audiences. The goddam ‘unskilled laughter’ coming from the fifth row. And that’s right, that’s right — God knows it’s depressing. I’m not saying it isn’t. But that’s none of your business, really. That’s none of your business, Franny. An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s. You have no right to think about those things, I swear to you. Not in any real sense, anyway. You know what I mean?”