Privacy ?

[Srbo]

Ok, this time I don`t know where to put a thread, and the title is probably no good either, but here it goes...

Over a week ago, I`ve read an interview by J.D.Salinger, I assume all of us know who he is ( Catcher in the Rye author ).
That was his first interview in just about 30 years, and he gave it coz he wanted to talk about the new Terminator flick ( yeah, I know , WTH !? ).
Apparantly, the 90 year old writer is a big fan of the series, has a huge collection of everything related to The Terminator, so he wanted to talk about how Christian Bale did as the new John Connors and whatnot.
But, of course, the journalists wanted to know the answer to a couple of other anwsers from him, so they asked him what is the deal with keeping his life so private that almost no one even knew where he was in the last three decades...and then the dude goes like this:

" I think, that the more you talk about your private life, the less the readers can concentrate on your work and study it properly. I despise every single writer that has ever talked about himself or his private life.
And neither should any book be ever made into a movie. "

So, I am sitting there reading that, laughing out loud..I`m like..."right, that`s why you just had an interview about how much you love the Terminator flicks. "

And that statement comes from a guy who didn`t publish anything in, what, 40 years or so, and prior to that he wrote the Catcher, he wrote Nine Stories and had some other minor work done. And that`s it.
The Catcher has been beaten to death, talked about, analyzed and so on a long time ago...does he really think that people are still sitting scratching their heads about that book ?

And he despise every writer who talks about himself ?
Of course, that statement had me immidiatley think of SK.

If he had never talked about himself, how much he struggled to become a writer, how much his wife was and is his support, about his addiction problems, given people advice on how to write and so on and so forth, the world would be considerably poorer of some wonderful advice and many people would have given up on writing completely.
But SK talked and talks, gives young writers hope, gives addicts hope, shows people how life can turn from misery to success by following certain steps...

So, my point is that, IMO, JDS is completely wrong and, if he didn`t talk about himself...well I don`t know..to me, it looks like you actually had nothing to say...or you were to selfish to help anybody else out.

And thank you once again, Stephen King, for talking about yourself and actually helping people.

With all due respect, Mr Salinger, go write a new book and let people actually film The Catcher...and don`t give another interview for another 30 years.
I`ll be fine with that. :wink:

[EMARX]

I wonder if he has written anything at all or he has boxes bursting with stories. He sells 250,000 copies of catcher a year. He just may not be relevant any more to most people. Apparently there is a sequel to "Catcher" written by someone else and he is trying to block that as well.

[Seneca_V]

Not to mention, every writer I can think of has talked about themselves at one point or another, not that they've all had useful things to say like Sai King. But I bet that statement ticked a lot of people off. I agree with you, Srbo, the world would be worse off if Sai King didn't share what he shares about himself with us, as well as what a lot of other writers share too. I never liked J.D. Salinger, because I didn't know anything about him, now I have a reason not to like him. He also wrote Catcher and I guess didn't need to write anything else, I remember Sai King saying he could've stopped years ago, at least he still does it because it's fun! And that's hilarious about the fascination with The Terminator movies, LOL!

[IfSoGirl]

Not to mention, every writer I can think of has talked about themselves at one point or another, not that they've all had useful things to say like Sai King. But I bet that statement ticked a lot of people off. I agree with you, Srbo, the world would be worse off if Sai King didn't share what he shares about himself with us, as well as what a lot of other writers share too. I never liked J.D. Salinger, because I didn't know anything about him, now I have a reason not to like him. He also wrote Catcher and I guess didn't need to write anything else, I remember Sai King saying he could've stopped years ago, at least he still does it because it's fun! And that's hilarious about the fascination with The Terminator movies, LOL!

he wrote more than just the catcher in the rye, he wrote at least 3 or 4 others all based on the same family. which i read and love. and i think he has a little bit of a point, a writer essentially is his work and his voice heard through his writing. i think this can be said of king as well. and its not like he wrote terminator, why can't he like the movies?

[Seneca_V]

he wrote more than just the catcher in the rye, he wrote at least 3 or 4 others all based on the same family. which i read and love. and i think he has a little bit of a point, a writer essentially is his work and his voice heard through his writing. i think this can be said of king as well. and its not like he wrote terminator, why can't he like the movies?

Miscommunication...I think (worst thing about the Internet). Anyway, I never said he was a bad writer, I said I didn't like him That's my opinion, same as I think it's funny he likes Terminator, sorry if I offended anyone, that's just my sense of humor! Staying silent for decades and than doing an interview to talk about Terminator, c'mon, there's some humor to that, at least to me! I never said he couldn't like Terminator, I like Terminator myself, lol!

[Bryan James]

Consider your left thumb's fingerprint.

BJS

[Damaris]

I love being anonymous, unknown, forgotten, and would probably prefer being very quiet about my private life if I were ever a published author. Of course, that might not be terribly effective in selling more copies of your book. The way Salinger says it comes off rather pompous but maybe he was refering more to the glut of "Hollywood" media that plague news stands and checkout aisles, and their coverage of popular mainstream authors. (J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer immediately spring to mind, especially with the film connections.) Salinger may hardly consider some of them authors. And compared to his old school point of view, maybe sharing commonalities of your life smacks of self-importance or boastfulness. Or maybe he was just feeling a little crochety and that was how it manifested. Who knows. Personally, if authors don't mind talking publicly about their lives I certainly won't hold it against them, so long as it's all in good taste and moderation. You know, honestly, for as overwhelmingly popular as Mr. King is, I don't see how he keeps as low a profile as he does. But I think it's nice, that he shares what he does while maintaining a level of privacy (though there are times I'm sure he'd like more). Just my two cents.

[Haunted]

WARNING....I am about to commit a sacrilege here...I never liked Catcher. Never could figure out the hoohaa.

[Seneca_V]

I just realized the irony here. Salinger says he despises writers who talk about themselves, while giving an interview about how much he likes Terminator, oookkkaayyy... Now I get what you meant, Srbo, for some reason that went right over my head yesterday!

[Srbo]

I love being anonymous, unknown, forgotten, and would probably prefer being very quiet about my private life if I were ever a published author.

Salinger may hardly consider some of them authors. .

Yeah, sure, some people do prefer it that way.

But this statement came from a guy who wanted to talk about The Terminator, for Petes sake.

As for who Salingers considers an author...yeah, well, the guy hasn`t published anything in 40 years..and even when he was publishing, he was prolific just like my grandma was...in other words, close to zero.
can he really say that about other writers ? Does he qualify to say that ?

And, IMO, and this is juts mine, no offence to anyone...The Catcher would have been long forgotten anyhow...if there wasn`t a total maniac called Mark David Chapman who killed one of the greatest people that ever walked the Earth - John Lennon.
Then he waited for the police while reading that book.

That was actually the biggest publicity that that book ever got. On a hineous crime.
Eff the Catcher and eff Holdens "lost generation".


BTW, Sen, yep, that`s the point of the topic...