tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/j-d-salinger-11862/articlesJ.D. Salinger – The Conversation2016-04-26T10:01:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/553722016-04-26T10:01:51Z2016-04-26T10:01:51ZWhy Prince’s music will become more accessible after his death<p>Last Thursday, the world was shocked by the untimely death of Prince, the highly prolific, Grammy-winning music icon who not only transformed music and the record industry but also provoked questions about <a href="https://theconversation.com/princes-gift-was-that-he-stepped-right-out-of-racisms-symbolic-logic-58308">race</a>, gender and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-elusive-virtuoso-who-embraced-ambiguity-and-female-desire-58274">sexuality</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from his songs, musical genius and virtuosic skills, the “Purple Rain” singer is also widely recognized for his fierce <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princes-quest-for-complete-artistic-control-changed-the-music-industry-forever-58267">protection</a> of artistic freedom and his longstanding fight with his first record label, Warner Bros.</p>
<p>It seems only a few years ago that he performed in concerts with the word “slave” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-prince-tidal-spotify-20160422-story.html">written</a> on his face. Partly as an act of protest, he also changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, causing people to refer to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”</p>
<p>In the past few years, the singer remained reluctant to work with internet streaming platforms. Today, his music remains largely <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/21/why-you-can-t-listen-to-prince-s-music-after-his-death.html">unavailable</a> on Spotify and Apple Music. A rare exception is Jay Z’s <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6656697/prince-tidal-exclusive-hitnrun-album-release-stream">Tidal</a>, which released his “HITnRUN” albums.</p>
<p>Commentators have been quick to discuss Prince’s positions on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-tough-to-find-princes-songs-online-and-other-musicians-are-thankful-58321">intellectual property rights</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princes-quest-for-complete-artistic-control-changed-the-music-industry-forever-58267">music business</a>. Yet, few have explored whether Prince’s music will become more readily available after his death.</p>
<p>Although it is difficult to predict how his unreleased materials will be handled – considering that he does not have any apparent <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1683495/will-we-ever-hear-the-music-in-princes-vault">heir</a> – a quick review of what happened after the death of other famously reclusive artists may offer some useful hints.</p>
<h2>The vault</h2>
<p>It is a well-known secret that Prince accumulated a large trove of unreleased materials in a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/22/media/prince-vault/">vault</a> – or <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/princes-lost-rolling-stone-interview-i-dont-think-about-gone-20160422">vaults</a> – in his Paisley Park studio complex.</p>
<p>In interviews conducted last year by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/19/i-would-hide-4-u-whats-in-princes-secret-vault">The Guardian</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31962180">BBC</a>, Brent Fischer, Prince’s longtime collaborator, suggested that this vault contained about 70 percent of the material the singer had ever produced. This figure is mind-boggling considering that Prince <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_albums_discography">released</a> close to 40 studio albums.</p>
<p>Moreover, because of Prince’s widely publicized fight with his record label in the 1990s, many <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1683495/will-we-ever-hear-the-music-in-princes-vault">believe</a> that the vault will contain some of Prince’s finest work – material that the singer might have chosen not to release amid that struggle. The last album released by Warner Bros. in the 1990s was ironically titled “The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale.”</p>
<h2>The King of Pop</h2>
<p>To some extent, the materials in Prince’s vault remind us of an equally valuable trove of unfinished tracks Michael Jackson left behind following his unexpected death in 2009.</p>
<p>As an avid “MJ” fan, I still remember the suddenly much wider use of his music in movies and TV programs shortly after his death – “Bad” in the movie “Megamind” being a notable example.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qacYOQKd4Rw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Controversies also arose over the posthumous release of his unfinished tracks – as part of the albums “MICHAEL” and “Xscape.” While some – such as <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6092238/quincy-jones-on-michael-jacksons-xscape-its-about-money">Quincy Jones</a>, Jackson’s former producer – questioned the motives behind the release of these albums, others were disappointed by the extra production and packaging that had <a href="http://the-artifice.com/michael-jackson-xscape-posthumous-album/">gone</a> into the original material without the artist’s input. </p>
<p>Regardless of one’s views, however, the much wider use of Jackson’s music, along with increased merchandise sales, quickly catapulted the singer back to eye-popping commercial success. Today, Jackson is at the top of Forbes’ <a href="http://www.forbes.com/dead-celebrities/#17ef7fad6a51">list</a> of “top-earning dead celebrities,” bringing in US$115 million in last year alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Jackson’s music had a renaissance after his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Franz Kafka</h2>
<p>Estates and their lawyers have been widely criticized for being greedy and for taking aggressive legal actions to limit public access to the works of the deceased. While property owners have unrestricted rights to dispose of their property – including inheritance – copyrights have become particularly problematic considering that they last for 70 years after an author’s death.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some estates have managed to make the works of the deceased more widely available. A leading example concerns Franz Kafka. Before he died at the young age of 41, he left specific <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=0">instructions</a> to his friend and executor, Max Brod: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My last request: Everything I leave behind me … in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, to be burned unread.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of what Kafka wrote would never have been read had his friend followed his wishes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kafka statue via www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having already verbally declined his friend’s request in person, Brod refused to burn the manuscripts after the writer’s death. Had he followed Kafka’s instructions, we would never have read some of Kafka’s masterpieces, such as “The Trial” and “The Castle.” We might never even have known Kafka’s talents, as he published <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=0">less</a> than 450 pages in his lifetime!</p>
<h2>J.D. Salinger</h2>
<p>A more recent example is J.D. Salinger, the author of “Catcher in the Rye.” Despite his wildly successful novel about teenager Holden Caulfield, he withdrew from public life shortly after the novel’s publication in 1951.</p>
<p>Although Salinger continued to write – and had publicly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/25/salinger-authors-claim-posthumous-works-published">admitted</a> to doing so – the lack of publications since the early 1960s created a longstanding mystery. </p>
<p>Salinger died in 2010. A few years later, a biographer revealed that he might have left instructions to his estate to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/03/new-jd-salinger-fiction-documentary">publish</a> as many as five novels after his death. The release of these novels would not only shed light on the author’s reclusive life but also help us understand better Holden Caulfield’s character.</p>
<h2>Posthumous releases</h2>
<p>It remains to be seen what materials from Prince’s vault will be finally released. If past experience with recently deceased music superstars provides any guide, a considerable quantity of these previously unreleased materials will eventually become commercially available – whether Prince would have liked it or not.</p>
<p>Although some will certainly argue that these materials should have been kept hidden given the artist’s lifetime choices, strong support can be drawn from his longstanding fight with record labels, not to mention his 2012 video clip <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/19/i-would-hide-4-u-whats-in-princes-secret-vault">teasing</a> to release “every good thing in the vault.” </p>
<p>Hopefully, Prince’s estate will be able to go through the vault carefully to develop a plan to disseminate the unreleased materials in ways that will honor the artist’s legacy – perhaps as <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/princes-lost-rolling-stone-interview-i-dont-think-about-gone-20160422">“time capsule”</a> albums. After all, if these materials remain locked up in a vault, it will be a loss to not only his estate but also his many fans around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter K. Yu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What happened after artists such as Michael Jackson, J.D. Salinger and Franz Kafka died suggests it’ll be hard to keep Prince’s unpublished work out of the public eye, regardless of his wishes.Peter K. Yu, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/534952016-01-26T19:19:00Z2016-01-26T19:19:00ZSix years on: the enduring influence of J. D. Salinger<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108950/original/image-20160122-430-1cnw9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=133%2C169%2C4452%2C2832&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On the anniversary of his death, we reflect on how J. D. Salinger’s writing first influenced the world and how it continues to do so now.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">July Morning | RU</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today marks six years since celebrated writer J. D. Salinger passed away at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire, at the age of 91. Famously shunning all aspects of public life for decades prior to his death, he published no new work after <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/06/19/hapworth-16-1924">1965</a> and gave no interviews after <a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/back-issues/80">1980</a>. Yet he apparently continued to write every day with a religious diligence.</p>
<p>In 1972 <a href="http://www.joycemaynard.com/Joyce_Maynard/B__At_Home_in_the_World.html">a girlfriend observed</a> “he has completed at least two books, the manuscripts of which now sit in the safe”.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/12/books/depositions-yield-j-d-salinger-details.html">Unsealed portions of depositions</a> taken in 1986 showed Salinger confirmed under oath that he was writing “Just a work of fiction. That’s all”. </p>
<p>And then after his death, a 2013 <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com.au/Salinger/David-Shields/9781471130373">book</a> and <a href="http://weinsteinco.com/uncategorized/salinger-is-a-treasure-trove-of-details-about-writer/">documentary</a> detailed <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/03/new-jd-salinger-fiction-documentary">five new works</a> he approved for publication between 2015 and 2020, however so far none have eventuated. </p>
<p>Today on the anniversary of his death, we reflect on how J. D. Salinger’s writing first influenced the world and how it continues to do so now.</p>
<h2>The Catcher in the Rye and young-adult fiction</h2>
<p>For many teenage readers <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5107.The_Catcher_in_the_Rye">The Catcher in the Rye</a> was a revelation. The earliest critics called protagonist Holden Caulfield a “<a href="https://www.unz.org/Pub/Nation-1959nov14-00360">lout</a>,” his angst and suffering “<a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/theatlantic/doc/203829091.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:PAGE&type=current&date=Aug+1961&author=Kazin%2C+Alfred&pub=The+Atlantic+%281932-1971%29&edition=&startpage=27-31&desc=J.+D.+Salinger%3A+%22Everybody%27s+Favorite%22">cute</a>,” and his rebellious nature “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Salinger-A-Critical-Personal-Portrait/dp/0720676495">the differential revolt of the lonesome rich child</a>,” though none could overlook the 1951 novel’s commercial success and popularity with adolescents. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108943/original/image-20160122-444-1nudtyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1950 portrait of J. D. Salinger. Portrait by Lotte Jacobi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia Commons. Lotte Jacobi Collection, University of New Hampshire</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Catcher in the Rye has sold <a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/fiction-book-sales-statistics/">65 million copies worldwide</a> and continues to sell <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jan/01/top-100-books-of-all-time#data">250,000 more each year</a>, frequently as a prescribed text in high school curricula.</p>
<p>Salinger’s pre-eminence as a youth writer is mainly attributed to the way he successfully captures the language of young people and depicts themes that appeal to teenage sensibilities. John Green – perhaps the most popular contemporary author of young-adult fiction – <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2015/07/john-green-12-biggest-influences.html">said last year</a> that “anybody who writes about teenagers does so in the shadow of Salinger”. </p>
<p>Rarely (if ever) does a list of the <a href="http://time.com/100-best-young-adult-books/">best young-adult fiction</a> omit the novel and, as <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/01/28/how-jd-salingers-the-catcher-in-the-rye-helped-create-young-adult-literature/">David Levithan wrote</a> in 2010:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Catcher in the Rye was one of the first books on the shelf of our young adult [sic] literature, and for almost sixty years we’ve written plenty more in an attempt to keep it company.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Controversy: the death of John Lennon</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108947/original/image-20160122-432-25cvlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First edition of Catcher in the Rye, 1951.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Little, Brown and Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once a text gains a diehard following it is vulnerable to extremes of interpretation. When Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon in December of 1980 he was found <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/chapman-pleads-guilty-john-lennon-murder-1981-article-1.2260944">reading The Catcher in the Rye</a> at the scene. Inside the book he’d written “This is my statement” and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/09/nyregion/lennon-murder-suspect-preparing-insanity-defense.html">signed off as Holden Caulfield</a>. </p>
<p>Months later, John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan and police <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/366646">found a copy of the novel</a> in his hotel room.</p>
<p>Salinger never gave public comment on the shootings during his lifetime. Yet by all accounts he despised critics misreading his texts, and one could assume that murder is a most extreme misreading of Holden stood for. <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/72842/the-knighthood-jd-salinger">Critics have rightly asserted</a> that Holden’s rebellion “never quite transcends the adolescent pique at wrong guys and boring teachers,” <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/on-first-looking-into-chapmans-holden-speculations-on-a-murder/">and that Holden</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… wanders through New York with a genuine desire, to quote an old Beatles tune, to “take a sad song and make it better”, but he doesn’t know how to begin […]. Simply put, it appears Chapman misread The Catcher in the Rye.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Film and the work of Wes Anderson</h2>
<p>The Catcher in the Rye has inspired leagues of on-screen stories – notably <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/">Rebel Without a Cause</a> (1955) and Six Degrees of Separation (<a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/72632/six-degrees-of-separation-by-john-guare/9780679734819">1990 play</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108149/">1993 film</a>). <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/nicholas-hoult-to-play-author-jd-salinger-in-rebel-in-the-rye-1201581935/">A drama about Salinger’s life</a> has been announced and will address “the birth of The Catcher in the Rye,” despite his insistence that a film adaptation of the novel must never arise. </p>
<p>This film is supposedly based on <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206277/j-d-salinger-by-kenneth-slawenski/">a 2011 biography</a>, perhaps an interesting way of circumventing the writer’s wishes.</p>
<p>Yet nowhere is his influence in film felt more than the work of Wes Anderson. Salinger’s Glass family (who feature heavily in his later work) are reconstructed in Anderson’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/">The Royal Tenenbaums</a> (2001) as three child prodigies struggle to adjust to adult life. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4mUcGWNAaKI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Margot’s bathtub conversation, The Royal Tenenbaums.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Margot’s bathtub conversation with her mother is clear homage to a scene in Salinger’s 1957 novella <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780241950449/franny-and-zooey">Zooey</a>, and even her favourite coat finds <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3479365-franny-was-among-the-first-of-the-girls-to-get">its twin in a Salinger story</a>.</p>
<p>The precocious young lovers in Anderson’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/">Moonrise Kingdom</a> (2012) replicate numerous child figures in Salinger’s fiction. Children in Salinger’s work are equal parts characters and symbols of virtue, where the integrity and innocence of childhood is idealised and broken adults can find salvation in their “<a href="http://harpers.org/archive/1959/02/the-love-song-of-j-d-salinger-2/">wonderful directness</a>”.</p>
<p>Anderson’s film is no different, with Suzy and Sam <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/the-youthful-magic-of-moonrise-kingdom/257973/">repeatedly shown as</a> “resourceful, optimistic, capable of loyalty and love – all the qualities with which their elders struggle”.</p>
<p>Despite the prospect of forthcoming titles, 2015 came and went and the world was left wanting. The J. D. Salinger Literary Trust was <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/66995-j-d-salinger-literary-trust-fires-back-in-copyright-battle.html">busy fighting a small publisher</a> over foreign licensing rights for some old short stories, and any schedule for forthcoming Salinger books is still to be confirmed. </p>
<p>However, despite this absence, there remains abundant evidence of his influence in the contemporary world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today marks six years since celebrated writer J. D. Salinger died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire, at the age of 91. But his influence remains well and truly alive.Emma Michelle, The University of MelbourneAnne Maxwell, Assoc. Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/299722014-08-21T02:38:16Z2014-08-21T02:38:16ZJ.D. Salinger: the outsider everybody wants to get to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56124/original/ppwc3m4y-1407724477.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The author of The Catcher in the Rye wanted privacy – but that hasn't stopped biographers and memoirists delving into his personal life.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rakka</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 60 years after <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/17/catcher-in-the-rye-at-60-anniversary-jd-salinger">The Catcher in the Rye</a> was first published, and four years on from his death in 2010, American author J.D. Salinger continues to divide people. </p>
<p>He even divides some people from their younger selves. Many who identified with Catcher’s 16-year-old hero Holden Caulfield as teenagers judge the book more harshly later in life. </p>
<p>The story of a cynical yet sensitive teenage misanthropist whose only career ambition is to rescue children from adulthood, Salinger’s best-known work seems to have as many detractors as champions these days. Indeed, it is becoming fashionable to point out the flaws of its hero. To champion the book uncritically as an adult is to risk appearing immature, of failing to outgrow the pains of adolescent angst.</p>
<h2>Everyone wants to know Salinger</h2>
<p>Greater controversy surrounds the author himself. </p>
<p>If you’re reading this piece about J.D. Salinger, chances are you’ll already know something about his lousy childhood and how his parents were occupied and all that David Copperfield kind of crap (as Holden puts it). If you don’t, then you can consult one of the several Salinger biographies that have been published in recent years. </p>
<p>These include Kenneth Slawenski’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/J-D-Salinger-A-Life/dp/0812982592">J.D. Salinger: A Life</a> (Random House, 2011), Thomas Beller’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/J-D-Salinger-Escape-Artist-Icons/dp/0544261992">J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist</a> (New Harvest, 2014) and David Shields and Shane Salerno’s bestselling <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Salinger-David-Shields/dp/1476744831">Salinger</a> (Simon & Schuster, 2013), published alongside their <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596753/">documentary film</a> of the same title. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56033/original/wmkgz57k-1407475734.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">J.D. Salinger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://multimedia.aapnewswire.com.au/Search.aspx?search=jd+salinger"> EPA/FILES/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They’ll tell you about his patchwork college career, his grim war years, his turn to spiritualism, his serial relationships with much younger women and his legal battles to keep his life from public view. Famously reclusive and infamously eccentric, Salinger published nothing from 1965 up until he died aged 91 in 2010, but this has not stopped the biographers. </p>
<p>Shields and Salerno’s work (both book and film) was widely criticised for lazy scholarship, indulgence in pop psychology, sensationalism and for treating Salinger’s fiction as autobiography. Reviewers agree on one thing: Salinger would have hated it.</p>
<p>Shields and Salerno did <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/25/salinger-authors-claim-posthumous-works-published">cause a stir</a> when they announced that five previously unseen Salinger works would be posthumously published between 2015 and 2020. These “new” works would include a 1962 story resurrecting Holden Caulfield. </p>
<h2>The private life of J.D. Salinger</h2>
<p>Another new addition to the Salinger boom is Joanna Rakoff’s brush-with-fame memoir <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/my-salinger-year-9781408830178/">My Salinger Year</a> (Bloomsbury, 2014), in which the author recalls her time working for Salinger’s literary agent. The book’s bubbly, naïve tone is strangely reminiscent of a romance novel – with the mysterious Mr Salinger lurking in the background like an incongruous Christian Gray figure. </p>
<p>What was undeniably fresh about Salinger’s best fiction was its voice — some credit him with inventing the teenager in literature — but the sentiments in the memoir can be as conventional as the prose. Consider, for example, how the gushing Rakoff describes how she devoured Salinger’s works in a single weekend: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I loved them, of course. They were brutal and beautiful and true, yes, but they also spoke directly to everything I knew about the world, everything I loved and believed. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those seeking insight into Salinger’s private life would be better off reading his daughter Margaret A. Salinger’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Catcher-Margaret-A-Salinger/dp/0671042823">Dream Catcher: A Memoir</a> (Washington Square Press, 2001).</p>
<h2>Classic Salinger</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56030/original/2xk3cdcb-1407474494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Catcher in the Rye.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://multimedia.aapnewswire.com.au/Search.aspx?search=jd+salinger">samhsloan/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Catcher in the Rye is that great thing: a “must-read” modern classic that has the virtue of being short. Many will remember the book’s distinctive narrative style long after they have forgotten its plot. “I have a lousy vocabulary,” Holden tells us, but his idioms are infectious, with his favourite colloquialisms “goddamn”, “lousy” and “crumby” recurring ad absurdum (“crumby” occurs eight times in one paragraph about sex).</p>
<p>It is a voice that invites identification, seeming to speak directly to the individual reader; journalist Brigid Delaney <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/salingers-silence-allowed-work-to-speak-volumes-20130904-2t421.html">recently recalled</a> how “as a 15-year-old reading him for the first time, he seemed to know me”. </p>
<p>While this is no doubt one reason why Catcher has sold upwards of 60 million copies since its first appearance, there is irony in millions of young adults relating to a hero who is supposed to be an outsider. How can Holden be misunderstood if everyone understands him? </p>
<p>Holden Caulfield isn’t really enough of a rebel to be a rebel without a cause (he likes telling the reader what he couldn’t be bothered doing). And let’s face it, most of the things that bother Holden are what we now call “first world problems”. </p>
<p>American comedian Moshe Kasher invites us to contrast his experience in the title of his 2012 memoir <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kasher-Rye-Oakland-Criminal-Patient/dp/0446584266">Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16</a>. Having the time to worry about your emotional authenticity may be a bourgeois luxury.</p>
<h2>Salinger’s readers</h2>
<p>On the other hand, Salinger himself had experienced more than his fair share of horror during his service in the second world war. Catcher’s first six chapters were drafted in the build-up to D-Day. An increasingly popular view is that Salinger’s war experience was the absent cause of his best fiction: for instance, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/02/jd-salinger-three-stories-review">novelist Jay Parini asserts</a> that “[Salinger] was trying to cleanse himself. His work was one of expiation.” </p>
<p>Salinger’s work has also been linked to violence through some of the fans it attracts. </p>
<p>Notoriously, John Lennon’s murderer Mark Chapman carried a copy of Catcher in which he had written “To Holden Caulfield, From Holden Caulfield, This is my statement”. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/25/us/shooting-document.html?_r=0">The antisocial manifesto of 22-year-old mass shooter Elliot Rodgers</a> has also been <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/05/27/razer-misogyny-not-to-blame-for-santa-barbara-massacre/">repeatedly compared</a> to Salinger’s work, however unfairly.</p>
<h2>Privacy for novelists</h2>
<p>If Salinger’s case is anything to go by, the best way to court literary celebrity may be to shun it. </p>
<p>Other cases support this conclusion. Would anyone have the faintest interest in <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/thomas-pynchon-bleeding-edge.html">a photo of Thomas Pynchon</a> were he not so camera-shy? That J.M. Coetzee did not attend ceremonies for either of his two Booker Prizes does not seem to have hurt his sales figures. </p>
<p>Cult followers of reclusive writers are perfectly capable of creating their own legends to redress the dearth of actual material – the rumour that <a href="http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2013/06/thomas-pynchon-back-new-york/66140/">Pynchon and Salinger were the same man</a> is among the best known. Another rumour had it that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/may/05/artsfeatures.fiction">Pynchon was the Unambomber</a>.</p>
<p>Salinger could be an adoring fan himself, it turns out. Although seemingly fearful or resentful of the groupies his own work attracted, the author wrote an admiring letter in 1972 to the teenaged author of a smart New York Times essay “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/maynard-mag.html">An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life</a>”. </p>
<p>Not only did the author, Yale fresher Joyce Maynard, write back, but the two soon embarked upon a romance (never mind the age gap). As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/05/salinger-documentary-review">Tom Shone writes</a>, “Salinger was a genius of immaturity” in his fiction, and it would be easy to make a link between this and his preference for teenaged lovers. </p>
<p>That genius for immaturity may also be what makes his work so relevant to a generation of 20 and 30-somethings who are frequently accused of being underdeveloped “kidults”, caught in the rye of an extended adolescence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sascha Morrell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than 60 years after The Catcher in the Rye was first published, and four years on from his death in 2010, American author J.D. Salinger continues to divide people. He even divides some people from…Sascha Morrell, Lecturer in English, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.