New Salinger Book and Movie

[Chris Kubica]

All,

Ignore any critics and spoilers. See the movie:

http://salingerfilm.com/

and read the book:

http://salingerbook.com/

and then let's discuss both on this list. Wanna?

Chris

[Alegra Harris]

yeah i live in austin and it opens friday
i want to see it and then definitely have a discussion
alegra

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[Beth Kienle-Granzo]

All,

I've never posted to the group, but have been on the listserv for a few years now.  I saw the movie in NYC last week.  I had mixed reactions and felt it was melodramatic in regards to the score and "reenactments" (for lack of a more accurate/appropriate word), but overall I'm glad I saw it as it had a few nice "tid-bits" for us uber-fans.  I thought the celebrity interviews were a bit odd and irrelevant.  Don't let this dissuade you from seeing it thought.   

The book is next.

Beth   

[mike]

Got the book from the library.  Already two qualms, from the four page intro.  WWII didn't kill the man; and religion didn't kill his art.  The opposite in fact.  And, Slawenski's bio is the ultimate.  Period.  Plus, three mentions of the "embarrassing physical defect."  C'MON.  Ah well.  What's time but something to kill.

[mike]

SHANE SALERNO: There has been a lot of misinformation about what J. D. Salinger actually did in the war.  These inaccurate stories have been repeated for decades in numerous books and articles.  The most recent offender is Kenneth Slawenski's J. D. Salinger: A Life (2010), which has dozens of errors about Salinger's war record.  Slawenski claims that "once on the field of battle, he [Salinger] was forced to become a leader of men, responsible for squadrons and platoons."  For starters, squadrons are only in the Air Force.  Furthermore, members of the Counter Intelligence Corps didn't lead men; they weren't combat soldiers.

ALEX KERSHAW: He, for example, would not have to reply to an officer with his rank because he was in the counter-intelligence.  He could actually order a major or a colonel to do something, and yet he was a sergeant.

...and a page later...

DAVID SHIELDS: Salinger's role may have mutated from noncommissioned staff seargent intelligence to unofficial combat officer status to infantryman to a combination of all these during reconnaissance operations.

Right hand not meshing with the left here.  It sounds a hell of a lot like Salinger was a leader of men, and responsible for a whole helluva lot.

And here's the definition of "squadron" from Dictionary.com:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/squadron

Doesn't dozens of errors mean twelve or more?  SLANDER!

Slawenski's "Hell" chapter is a masterpiece.

Period.

[mike]

EBERHARD ALSEN: After Salinger's sister, Doris, was born on December 17, 1912, his mother, Miriam, suffered two miscarriages.

SHANE SALERNO: Miriam's doctors didn't expect her second pregnancy (li'l Jerome) to come to fruition.

Wouldn't li'l Jerome have been her fourth pregnancy?  :)

[Michael Anello]

From the INTRODUCTION:  "Other books about Salinger tend to fall into one of three categories: academic exegeses; necessarily highly subjective memoirs; and either overly reverential or overly resentful biographies that, thwarted by lack of access to the principals, settle for perpetuating the agreed-upon narrative."

Hey, isn't that four categories?  :)

SHANE SALERNO: Typical Salinger, mixing up sex, games, and celebrity.

One guess which category this "book" falls into.

There are actually five categories, and Slawenski's bio is in this last, I've read it twice.  It's balanced, sympathetic, and honest.

--

[mike]

From the front dust jacket:  "THE OFFICIAL BOOK of the ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY FILM"

Acclaimed means "praised enthusiastically and publicly."

Anybody got links that demonstrate this acclaim?

[Chris Kubica]

There are plenty of positive reviews, most of which are linked to in the official tweet stream:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SecretSalinger

Chris Kubica

President, Founder

Application Architects

1-888-896-4608

www.applicationarch.com

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[Michael Anello]

Thanks!

[mike]

I think this review sounds most like my feelings thus far:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/raise-high-the-pr-machine-for-salinger-treasure-trove.html

[James Rovira]

Ha... I get the feeling somehow that justice was done with that review...

Jim R

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 12:33 PM, mike <michae...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think this review sounds most like my feelings thus far:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/raise-high-the-pr-machine-for-salinger-treasure-trove.html

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Dr. James Rovira

Associate Professor of English

Tiffin University

http://www.jamesrovira.com

Blake and Kierkegaard: Creation and Anxiety

Continuum 2010

http://jamesrovira.com/blake-and-kierkegaard-creation-and-anxiety/

Text, Identity, Subjectivity

http://scalar.usc.edu/works/text-identity-subjectivity/index

[mike]

I dunno.  I keep reading this book and they keep trying to make it seem weird what Salinger was doing with his writing.  If you ever got into yoga, especially jnana-yoga, you see that Salinger was trying to find himself.  After all the war stuff, and losing himself, and trying to escape in Catcher....the rest of his writing was just trying to regain what he lost.  The self.  Knowing the self is knowing god.  Knowing that we all are.  And I'm not sure what's wrong with a story writer writing stories about what's going on with the writer.  What's so hard to understand?  He's the little drummer boy, like Ringo.  He's not religious like George, revolutionary like John, a pop star like Paul.  He just wanted to drum.  Anyways, that's why my favorite Beatle is Ringo.