Thursday, January 27, 2011

In praise of Salinger

At the bottom of this blog is a quotation from J. D. Salinger about the independence of the artist, the writer. You aim for perfection by your own standards, and this is all you need to do. It's quite enough. As part of this philosophy, Salinger refused to dance in pop or literary culture, refused to play the role of the famous writer, and I admire him for this. Today too many writers have become "personalities" and there's too much "socialization" in the arts of a kind that betrays the private quest of the serious writer. There are too many committees, everywhere, doing everything.


So I greatly admire the determined privacy of J. D. Salinger.An ar"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."tist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."

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