Subject: Re: OSRs (obSal?)
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Sat Oct 14 2000 - 08:09:47 GMT
Not so long ago, I got a good row going
on the Hemingway list when I questioned the value
of visiting or being acquainted with the various places
their Master had written about. One or two of them,
especially incensed, had produced books along the lines
of 'Hemingway's Bars' or 'The Paris Hemingway Loved'
& so on, with beautifully angled photographs showing
the views Hemingway must have had when he was knocked
down by Mr X or turned down by Miss Y.
I commented how disappointed I'd been when I'd gone
to these places & tried to put myself in Jake Barnes' shoes
at the Bar Select or Colonel Cantwell's on Torcello.
The places Hemingway had given me were already so vivid
in my head that the real thing was at worst a complete
irrelevance or at best a bloodless imitation. I've no wish
to see the beauty & menace of the Big Two Hearted River
(or BTHR as those cretins like to identify it) reduced by
an actual visit. And, thanks all the same, but I have my own
Paris & my own Venice - for my own purposes.
The same is true of Salinger's places. I know exactly how
it was that cold day in the Park without having ever been there.
To try to establish a link between Salinger's experience
& my own is surely to diminish them both.
_______________
And, OK, what is an OSR, or an obSal? Obligatory Salinger
Reference? Ordinarily Suppressed Rubbish? Outstandingly
Stupid Remark? obiit Salingerus? obfuscating Sarah?
For that matter, what is a D?
Scottie B.
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