I've just been part of a Facebook thread which began with my posting "R.I.P. J.D. Salinger." I've been surprised at the tone of the discussion. Some people have questioned the sincerity of posting an "R.I.P." when someone dies. Others have said that Salinger was good only to give white people permission to imagine that they had problems. Others have compared him negatively to John Lennon, pointing out that he wrote his book and disappeared, whereas Lennon went more and more public with his dissent. I don't want to turn this into a major issue, but here's my answer:
Since I did post R.I.P. J.D. Salinger--I can say I was actually sincere in feeling that. Even though Salinger sought utter solitude, somewhere the mind that came to "Catcher" was still working--and maybe in privacy he was still writing. We won't know that for a while. So his passing is sad because something that moved the world forward is no more. Now I've defended my R.I.P.
As to his contribution, I don't think it was just to let white people pretend that they have problems. White people were stuck in a horrible plantation mentality. "Catcher" was part of breaking that loose--and, at least for myself--it was one of many things (Rolling Stones, Hells Angels, Tim Leary and more) that gave me permission to leave Orange County California and join the anti-war movement and civil rights movement. The book didn't do it all by itself, but everyone who's in any way progressive or even a little bit liberated owes a smidgen of gratitude to Mr. Caulfield.
Lennon was true to his message with his life. That is admirable and beautiful and wonderful. He used his celebrity to increase the power of his opinions about justice. But Salinger's dropping out was, in the opinion of many people, his way of saying that the world had to change. I'm not comparing one to the other in terms of effectiveness, but I am saying that there is the obvious and then there is the power of suggestion.
I hope that when I kick the bucket that my list is complete, that somebody writes "R.I.P. Brent" on Facebook (or iFacebook as is may be by then), and that a bunch of people of many different age groups have reason to argue on pages like these about the effectiveness of my life, the worth of my books, and toss my name around in the company of some of my heroes--even if it means that I'm being compared negatively to them. We all measure success differently, but I'd settle for that. So J.D. hasn't done so bad.
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It is interesting that your post on Salinger has drawn so much commentary. Why your sincerity is being questioned I think has more to do with the doubts in the minds of the accusers more than any real lack of sincerity on your part. I must say, I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye. Though, as a person of color and a member of the main group (Afro-whatever) that historically has been both dangerous and integral to white identity, something which has constantly changed clothes rather than become something else, I fail to fathom how white folks need permission, as the dominant group, to do much of anything. White folks problems have always been front and center. What has not been so is the root causes. It is this phenomenon that was summed up by Ignacio Lula Da Silva in a speech immediately following the latest financial crash when he said that it can all be placed at the feet of the “blue-eyed, white skinned” people running Wall Street. In short, White folks problems equals global catastrophe.
I do not know whole lot about Salinger but my guess is that, unlike John Lennon who met an inglorious end, he simply may not have had more to say and understood that the problem ran much deeper than a lack of insight. It is and remains a problem of fortitude and commitment. We all know what the problems are and what by and large the solutions are. It is just are we willing to make the, granted considerable, sacrifices required to do what needs to be done. Indeed, the world does need to change.
Not to worry B-Man. We’ll be talking about you long after you’ve gone to wherever critics of religion go to once they die lol.
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