 When you read these lines, it will have been almost a month. It's the sort of news that would make some people extremely sad while others would not even notice.That is, you either know and love him, or you have no idea who he is. I'm not sure about how the Turkish press covered the news, but it surely was a sad day on social networking sites. People tweeted their grief over and over again and gave links to the work of the deceased. Just in case you haven't heard about it, I'll tell you once again: J. D. Salinger, age 91, passed away on January 27.
"But who is Salinger?", I hear some of you say. Then I must warn you beforehand. This is not an article to let you know who Salinger was, or to introduce him to you. It is rather a somehow selfish piece of writing, maybe a eulogy, to explain my gratitude and fondness for this person. Therefore, the encyclopedic information I am about to provide on him will be nothing more than a formal procedure.
J. D. Salinger was the American author of the novel Catcher in the Rye (1951), and the collections of novellas and short stories Nine Stories (1953), Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1961), and Franny and Zooey (1963), among with a few other works that were only published in magazines, or even not published at all. By the early sixties, he became a recluse and stopped interviewing for journalists and publishing (maybe writing too). Since then, he had been leading a very closed, secret life.
What is sad about Salinger's death is not the event of the death itself. Everyone, of course, realizes that after a certain age, death is more than expected and in some cases even better than suffering. And unlike some well-loved authors of today, who can become celebrities themselves, nobody knew where he lived, what he did, what his favorite films or plans for Christmas were. No one had any expectations of him publishing any more work, it was only wishful thinking. Therefore, there is, when you look at, absolutely nothing to miss about him because we were not even sure he physically existed anymore!
Yet,as a literary persona or an inspiring entity, he never ceased to be a source of reference and an author strongly recommended in our conversations. By 'we', I mean a small group of people my age, people who I know personally or online; people who read his peculiar, strangely attractive, very subtly heart-breaking fiction in admiration of the small universe he created. The Catcher in the Rye features one of the biggest anti-heroes in American literature, Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who goes through a series of funny and simultaneously sad events, while the story makes striking comments on innocence. His other work, the collections of novellas and stories are, to a very large extent, about the seven Glass children, extremely intelligent but consequently, socially incompatible sisters and brothers who are followed at many stages of their lives, from many points of views, constructing the "Glass saga" as many critics call it.
Almost five years ago, I had an American professor whom I asked what the 'freakiest' book he'd ever read was, and he replied Franny and Zooey. Neither he, nor I ( having read the book many times and adoring the male protagonist) knew why this was the right answer. And I don't think we cared to explain why we loved Salinger. In the extremely large galaxy of literature, Salinger was just one man, a naïve, noble essentialist who objected to having any designs on his book covers and to having his name written in a bigger font than the title of his books (so as not to attract any readers by a fake picture or by his name). Even those like us, who read him over and over again, will reach nowhere near understanding the complexity and richness of the small realm of his books, while millions of book-lovers, appreciators of good literature, won't know his name. To tell you the truth, I'd personally prefer that many people just never did so that we could keep the transparent despair of his quirky, lonely characters to ourselves, sharing their dissatisfaction with life and quietly loving them.
By Damla Okay (COMD/V)
dokay@bilkent.edu.tr
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