missing in action

[calimac]

At the time of J.D. Salinger's death, I remarked that I'd never read any of his work. I have occasionally wondered, though, over the years, what it would be like to be a Salinger fan: to admire great work that came out a long time ago, and the author is still around and in good health, but he hasn't published anything in ages and is just ... hiding out somewhere, in cryptic silence, and nobody ever comes out, and nobody ever goes in.

Well, as I realized when Mark Evanier alluded to Salinger in linking to this little article, I am the fan of such an author.

Comments

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

I grew up reading and liking authors who were mostly dead or not writing any more (not dead white men writing classics, but books like the Little House books, Mrs Piggle Wiggle books, or Conan, and including Salinger.) So fandoms for living authors and waiting eagerly for the next book in the series to come out were never part of reading, for me.

I'm also glad that Bill Watterson quit when he was ahead.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Most of my favorite authors, even my favorite living ones, don't write in series or at least do much of their best work outside of it. I don't wait anxiously for the next book, and certainly not for a "what happens next" (a species of fan faunching I find obnoxious). I just like knowing that, since they're still around, they're still working. I didn't, and don't, want Watterson to run Calvin & Hobbes into the ground. That wouldn't serve my interests any more than it would serve his. What I'd like is for him to find something else creative to do.

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

The "impatient for what happens next" thing was something someone suggested to me for why people write fan fiction, an activity that is otherwise incomprehensible to me for various reasons. It wasn't familiar but sort of made sense.