Re: A life sentence worth a thousand words
William Hochman (wh14@is9.nyu.edu)
Sat, 23 Oct 1999 19:15:51 -0400 (EDT)
In the small school where I labor, i"ve been working with a few young
ladies wrestling with a course in Criticism...with texts over their heads
and
with a teacher perhaps out of touch, I still believe in the beauty of
criticism to give these students more reading power and thinking
alternatives that are more than worthwhile. AS I explained ideas of new
criticism, structuralsim, reader-response, formalism, deconstruction and
post modernism, I no illusion that I was doing anything more than study
for the midterm and yet I team tutored and after the last session, we
buzzed so much with theory we agreed to have coffee after work on monday.
Having just received my 1963 Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature,
I would have to say that Salinger collected a body of criticism that makes
his "section man" distaste for crit and love love of the amateur reader a
bit more complex. Afer all, Salinger initiated "The Salinger INdustry"
with his writing and I think he's linked to it in some ways that extend
the life of Salinger's work.
BTW, I held a first ed, no dedication RHTRBC&SAI in near perfect condition
in my hands, but couldn't reach te thousand bucks in my pocket to pay for
it...
Is it crass to value Salinger's books for their rare book costs or simply
part of his literature?
will
On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, Matt Kozusko wrote:
> You're offering Salinger as as an antidote to pretention?
>
> Or is this a matter of the people who really "get" literature as
> opposed to those who can only helplessly, haplessly fumble with it in
> a theory-induced stupor?
>
> --
> Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu
>