A Literary Mystery
Articles about the J.D. Salinger lawsuit keep popping up on my computer… the latest from the Arts & Letters Daily blurb in my Google Reader. The link on Arts & Letters Daily leads to an interesting article at Slate.
Although Ron Rosenbaum’s Slate article starts out discussing the lawsuit Salinger brought against a pseudonymous author of a “sequel” to Catcher in the Rye, the bulk of the article is about Salinger… what’s he been doing all these decades up there in New Hampshire? has he been writing? and, if so, what’s he been writing? will it be published before he dies? after? never?
Of course, there is the conspiracy theory side of the whole story and, being that I have quite the cynical side and love a good conspiracy theory, I’m willing to entertain the idea that the whole lawsuit is a wild publicity stunt to get Salinger’s name all over the media in anticipation of him actually publishing some of the writing he’s been doing over the past four decades. Or, at the ripe old age of 90, perhaps he’s anticipating his own death in the relatively near future and doing this to get his name back in the media in preparation for the posthumous publication of his manuscripts? Assuming there are manuscripts.
Probably not. But, hey, you just never know.
It’s much more plausible that Salinger, upon learning that someone else was writing about the characters he created, simply said, “oh, hell no” and sued. Writers are very protective of their characters. They’re like children who have been created and nurtured. And I can’t say as I blame him… especially if Salinger has already written a sequel to Catcher in the Rye and is simply waiting for the right time (after his death?) to publish it.
But then there’s the argument that the author of this sequel has done nothing wrong, according to the fair use doctrine.
My opinion? I have mixed feelings. While I understand that someone could come up with a great idea based on someone else’s work, I think I’m going to have to side with Salinger on this. Maybe it’s out of some weird sense of loyalty to a man who wrote one of the best books I’ve ever read (although I do not consider myself a cult-like devotee by any stretch of the imagination). If you’re a good writer… good enough to get your work published (and, really, based on some of the tripe that’s out there, that really isn’t saying much), then you should be able to write something good enough to not have to ride on the coattails of someone else. And I think that’s what this guy (or woman… “John David California” is supposedly a pseudonym, so who knows?).
Oh, yeah, and sometimes… most of the time… a story should be left the hell alone and not be sequelized. It’s a classic. Don’t screw it up with sequel. With a few exceptions, sequels suck.
And riding on the coattails of one of the most famous living American authors in an attempt to get rich? Kind of pathetic.
But, like I said… I have serious cynical tendencies.
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