Re: DeLillo + the public figure
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Wed, 13 May 1998 09:38:20 -0600 (MDT)
You make a fine reference here but I think Dellilo wasnt' basing Bill Gray
on Salinger so much as using Salinger's reclusiveness to frame Gray as a
good writer not connected (at the beginning of the book) to his culture.
Also, In _Mao II_, Gray is working on a failed novel and though I have no
way of knowing, my heart believes mr. salinger is working on material that
isn't failing...(just silent for now) will
On Tue, 12 May 1998, Kay/Bill Burbidge wrote:
> I was wondering, being new to the list and all, how many of you have
> read Mao II by Don DeLillo. The protagonist is based on Salinger,
> namely the front page photo of Salinger. DeLillo describes it as "A
> Photo of a man being shot." I think the role salinger has in the book
> is to show how closely we tie characters and the writers. we are unable
> to seperate salinger from holden. DeLillo's proposal would be that
> salinger went into reclusion so that the reader could examine the works
> without looking at them in the conifines (context) of the writer (new
> criticism). I was wondering what everybody thought. Should the writer
> be able to publish and not expect their personal lives to be dragged
> into it. Should the work stand distinctive of the writer or is it part
> of the societal contract that a writer is a public figure?
>
> G.
>