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January 28, 2010 | 4:18 pm
J.D. Salinger, novelist of modern anomie, dead at 91
Posted by Tom Teicholz
J. D. Salinger, the novelist whose “Catcher in the Rye,” was the gateway drug for a generation of teenagers, readers and writers resisting the social conformity, and who became almost as famous for being reclusive as he was for his novel and his collections of short stories, died at his home in New Hampshire, at 91. He last published in 1965; Salinger claimed that he continued to write and would no longer be published during his lifetime.
With Salinger’s death, the literary world awaits to find out, after more than 50 years of waiting, whether in fact,Salinger left completed work — stories, novels, even poems — and whether it is coherent and intelligible, interesting or out-of-date — whether any of it is good, or even perhaps, great.
In Catcher in the Rye created a teenager character who spoke the feelings of teenagers of all ages, in decrrying the behavior of “phonies.” In his subsequent short story collections, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenter” Salinger described characters at odds with themselves — and though many readers found them plain odd, they found them compelling. “The Catcher in the Rye” remains one of the perennial best-selling novels, read in schools across the country and the globe, holding a special place on the bookshelves of many. But Salinger’s last published stories, increasingly influenced by Salinger’s own experiments in eastern thinking, give one pause about what direction his unpublished writing may have taken. Hopefully we will know soon.
After Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon, he was found with a copy of “Catcher in the Rye.” and various writers and filmmakers have expounded on the connections between the two. Readers formed great attachment to “Catcher in the Rye” and perhaps this as much as anything was reason for Salinger to remove himself from society and live as a recluse in New Hampshire.
Born Jerome David Salinger in New York City in 1919, his father Sol, worked in the food industry. One of the accounts I read online claims that Salinger’s mother was born Marie but called herself Miriam and it was only after his bar-mitzvah that Salinger discovered that she was not in fact Jewish.
Salinger attended everal schools in New York including McBurney before attending Valley Forge Military Academy, and several colleges including New York University and Columbia University’s evening program where he attended a writing class taught by Whit Burnett of Story Magazine who would publish some of his early work.
In 1941 The New Yorker Magazine accepted “Slight Rebellion off Madison Avenue,” a short story featuring a character named Holden Caulfield.
At that time, Salinger also courted Oona O’Neil, playwright Eugene O’Neil’s daughter, who was a teenager at the time — she would eventually marry Charlie Chaplin. The courtship is mentioned in Aram Saroyan’s “Trio” his account of the young lives of Oona O’Neil, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Carol Matthau (Saroyan’s mother).
It is also reported that around that time Salinger worked on a cruise ship, and perhaps performed on board.
Salinger served in World War Two, landing in France on D-Day and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. While in France, he met Ernest Hemingway, who impressed Salinger and who was in turn impressed by Salinger’s writing — they began a correspondence. Salinger also served in a Counter-Intelligence Unit that interrogated prisoners of war and he was among the first soldiers to enter a recently liberated concentration camp. Shortly therafer, Salinger reportedly had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for combat-related stress in an Army hospital.
Upon his return to the States, Salinger continued to write short stories. “A perfect day for Bananafish” was published in the New Yorker and established Salinger as an important contemporary writer. At the same time, Salinger became interested in Buddhism and various variants of eastern religions and religious practices, which he would continue to explore the rest of his life.
With the publication of “Catcher in the Rye,” Salinger who was living in Westport, Connecticutt, moved with his then wife Claire to Cornish N.H., which continued to be his residence until his death. Salinger had two children, Margaret and Matt who survive him.
Salinger continued to publish stories in The New Yorker, many of them about The Glass family, until 1965, with ” Hapworth 16, 1924,” his last published story. After that Salinger claimed that he continued to write but would no longer publish during his lifetime.
At first, Salinger gave interviews to the local paper and high school but he stopped that after a certain while. For awhile, journalists would take it upon themselves to travel to New Hampshire and wait in town for Salinger to pick up his mail and then try and strike up a conversation. Salinger gave his last interview in 1980.
Over the last many decades several persons have written memoirs of knowing Salinger. These include his daughter Margaret, and writer Joyce Maynard who dated Salinger as a teenager.
Salinger was protective of his life and his work and over the years sued to block publications biographies, and unauthorized collections of his short stories, or works too closely inspired by his own.
My own Salinger experiences begin with “Catcher In the Rye,” one of four books a bookstore clerk insisted I needed to read, as a teenager, to educate myself (the other three were Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World” and “George Orwell’s 1984″ and Richard Farina’s “Been Down So Long”) — and yes, I became attached to the book. Whenever I had a swimming meet against the McBurney School I thought of Salinger and his description of his fencing team adventure in Catcher — And when we thought of where to meet near Grand Central, we thought of the clock in the Vanderbilt Hotel.
When the New York Times Magazine published Joyce Maynard on its cover — I was not alone in developing a crush and felt validated in my attraction when it was reported that she had begun an affair with J D Salinger. The fact that Salinger was so much older didn’t matter — the creator of Holden was, no doubt, in touch with his inner teenager.
A few years later, I learned that a friend of mine’s high school girlfriend had also had a relationship with Salinger which had developed by correspondence. According to the gossip, third hand, Salinger loved to come to New York, much like any tourist, and have tea at the Plaza, see a show and visit friends at the New Yorker and in the city — by being a recluse, he had created anonymity for himself in New York — no one knew what he looked like, no one recognized him.
One summer in the mid-1970s I found myself in the Catalyst bookstore in Santa Cruz. There on the counter by the cash register were two paperbacks, “The Uncollected Stories of J.D. Salinger” volumes 1, and 2. Someone had taken all the stories that Salinger had published over the years in magazines that remained uncollected and published them. I remember holding them in my hands and poring over them, looking at stories I had never heard of. Shortly thereafter, Salinger sued to halt what the publishers called a “samidzat publication” — and those copies were not seen again.
Matt, Salinger’s son, is an actor and producer who has lived for many years in LA — I don’t know if he still does — I met him once (possibly twice) — he seemed nice and very unaffected. Given that his father wanted at some point to be an actor and/or entertainer — perhaps his father found some pleasure in his son being a working actor who turns up on TV programs with some regularity. In any event. please accept our condolences on your loss.
Although Salinger had one of his early stories optioned for film, the way in which his work was mangled for the screen convinced never to again option any of his work. Joyce Maynard once commented that the only one who could ever have played Holden was Salinger himself.
Holden is dead. Long Live Holden.
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J.D. Salinger, novelist of modern anomie, dead at 91
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December 22, 2009 | 2:19 pm
DISNEY ON ICE — A GREAT TIME HAD BY ALL
Posted by Tom Teicholz
I was a little concerned that my daughter and her friend, tweens already disdainful of all parent-chosen entertainment, would find the DISNEY ON ICE show, as they say, “boring!” or too babyish — but they were enchanted.
There was a Mickey and Minnie opening to the show that they could have done without but the retellings on ice of “Little Mermaid,” “Cars,” “The Lion King,” and the after-intermission “Tinkerbelle” story really held them in thrall, particularly the moments of full on costume dance numbers (and remember this is on ice). Of course songs like “Under The Sea” and “Hakunah Matata” still resonate — and the opportunity to have a dinner of hot dog, soda, popcorn and candy is always appealing.
I went with another Dad, and we were discussing how much we still enjoy going to these shows. Truth is, that with very young kids, - and there were many, many young kids there, including some adorable young girls who came in their princess costumes (cute in the extreme) — there is more kid-management and less show enjoyment. You take them and they have a great time but the perfect sweet spot occurs when the kids are happy to be there and happy to watch, and even happy to let their parent also watch the show. I know — last night, I was there.
Here are some pics from the show:
The shows take place:
Staples Dec 17-20
Honda Center Dec 22-27
Citizens Business Bank Arena Dec 30- Jan 3
Long Beach Arena Jan 6-10
check out www.disneyonice.com for more info
For my friends at the FCC, let me repeat my prior disclosure of having been given free tickets by the show’s publicist—no doubt in the hope that I would write about the show,—which I confess that when I receive free tickets I do feel an obligation to write about more than if I do if I go to an event on my own dime and have nothing to say—and the hope that I would say nice things—which I don’t feel compelled to do if I don’t have nice things to say—I think part of my job is to provide my reactions, good or bad, and therefore let the people whose show it is, or venue it is, hear about what they are doing right or wrong, if there are matters that rankle or don’t appeal.
December 21, 2009 | 6:22 pm
German prosecutors looking into whether Demjanjuk ran over a Jewish man in 1947
Posted by Tom Teicholz
I know it sounds strange but one of my trusted correspondents sent me this Jpost.com article:
‘Demjanjuk ran over a Jew in 1947’
By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Evidence that John Demjanjuk, 89, may have deliberately run over and killed a Jew while driving a truck in Germany is being studied by police, a prosecutor said Monday in a DPA report.
Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk is currently on trial in Munich over allegations that he took part in the murder of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor Nazi death camp in 1943. He moved from Germany to the United States in 1952.
Read the full story at JPost.com.
December 21, 2009 | 2:15 pm
Disney on Ice comes to the Southland
Posted by Tom Teicholz
As many of you are well aware I am a good audience for all things circus and ice shows — can’t say that it’s my ‘rosebud” but it has something to do with my childhood, no doubt, and the sort of entertainment that my father enjoyed and took me to as a child.
I have attended Disney on Ice in the past, and when the good folks promoting this event, offered me tix, gratis, I jumped (perhaps I should have used a ice skating metaphor there — and said I did a doubll gainer (sp?). Now having completed the sort of disclosure the FCC would like bloggers to engage in from now on — I will leave it to you to determine whether my integrity has been compromised, or is not to be had for the price of a few tickets. I know, I know, — it could go either way.
In any event here is the info on the upcoming shows. I’ll let you know what I thought tomorrow. The big question being how my daughter and her friend reviews the show. The shows take place:
Staples Dec 17-20
Honda Center Dec 22-27
Citizens Business Bank Arena Dec 30- Jan 3
Long Beach Arena Jan 6-10
check out www.disneyonice.com for more info
Here’s the press release:
December 4, 2009 | 5:17 pm
A few thoughts on the first week of the Demjanjuk trial in Munich
Posted by Tom Teicholz
A few thoughts on the first week of the Demjanjuk trial in Munich:
One of the most interesting aspects thus far, to my mind, and little remarked upon, is that the co-plaintiffs in the case are Dutch and their relatives were transported to Sobibor from the Netherlands and murdered there.
I don’t know why I should find that surprising. Perhaps it’s because I associate Nazi extermination camps such as Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka as the place where much of Polish Jewry was murdered. Similarly, Auschwitz is known as the graveyard of French and Hungarian Jewry. Until now the fate of Dutch Jewry has not been much discussed. When the deportation and murder of the Dutch Jews is mentioned, it is often discussed in regard to Anne Frank, who after being arrested was deported to Westerbrook and from there to Bergen Belsen where she died of typhus.
Like Anne Frank, the majority of Dutch Jews, who numbered around 140,000 before the Holocaust, were sent to the Westerbook transit camp. From there, however, the greatest group were sent to Auschwitz. A few were sent to camps such as Theresienstadt and Bergen Belsen. What I did not know was that 19 train transports with more than 34,000 Jewish men, women and children were sent to Sobibor – they arrived between March and July of 1943 and most were murdered within an hour of arrival.
According to his Trawniki Nazi service ID card, Demjanjuk arrived in Sobibor in 1943 on March 27. Prosecutors have used the train transport records to calculate that 28,700 Jews were murdered while Demjanjuk served there.
Like any murder trial, the dead can not stand in the dock. It is the task of the prosecution, and in great part the purpose of the trial – to show that these people lived, that when murdered their lives were not erased. One unexpected aspect of the Demjanjuk trial is that it may open our eyes to the fate of Dutch Jewry.
It’s also worth noting that the German Judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, all born after the end of World War II, appear thus far to be undertaking their tasks in a manner that as one witness said, is a credit to the free democratic society that Germany has become.
Some of the co-plaintiff’s and a few observers took issue with the accommodations the Court has made for Demjanjuk’s health and age. But “Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.” The court going out of its way to be fair is a good thing.
The defense can be faulted for dragging out of its bag of tricks a whiff of threatening to put Germany on trial (much like Verges the defense attorney in the Barbie trial in Germany said he would put France on trial – it played well before the trial but made little impact inside the courtroom), and also for putting forward the objectionable and to my mind, tired notion, that there was somehow some equivalence between Demjanjuk and his victims at Sobibor. I’m not sure what the upside of these arguments which have no chance of succeeding are — perhaps they are mean to intimidate witnesses. In any event, the defense seems to be doing whatever they can – grasping at every straw possible – and doing their best to work around Demjanjuk’s denials and his behavior in court.
Finally, Demjanjuk’s behavior demands comment. Pulling a baseball cap over his head, lying on a stretcher, pulling a blanket over him, closing his eyes, moaning and mumbling prayers, being unresponsive to the Judge, all this strikes me as the behavior of a man desperately trying to block out where is and what’s going on. But he is choosing a way to do so that calls tremendous attention to himself, in a way that makes him look somewhat pitiful. It is a very passive, very passive aggressive reaction to confronting the charges against him. It is disrespectful of the court, the trial and the witnesses. It denies the plaintiffs the opportunity to truly confront Demjanjuk – he is very much trying to absent himself from the process – a quite cowardly reaction.
Demjanjuk’s back pain is said to derive from shrapnel in his back – and it bears saying that Demjanjuk’s Trawniki card that puts him at Sobibor lists among identifying details, Demjanjuk having a scar on his back.
Will Demjanjuk, due to his health and his antics, be successful at derailing the trial? It’s possible. At the Israeli trial – as the time of sentencing came closer, Demjanjuk voiced similar complaints. The Court allowed him to watch the trial from his jail room cell. In Germany, they have the possibility of actually holding the trial in the prison if necessary. However, there is no going back – nothing Demjanjuk can do can diminish the charges against him, the evidence against him, and the testimony heard this week about the Dutch Jews murdered at Sobibor.
December 4, 2009 | 2:14 pm
Demjanjuk trial: first week summary
Posted by Tom Teicholz
This week, John Demjanjuk was put on trial in Munich, Germany for being an accessory to the murder of 28,700 Jewish men, women and children at the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, between March and September of 1943.
Due to Demjanjuk’s advance age – he is 89 –the court had decided that it would only meet for two ninety minute sessions a day, and only for three days a week. In addition the schedule was set so that the first week of trial would be followed by a two week break, resuming on December 21.
This week saw the prosecution read the charges against Demjanjuk. The prosecution made clear that Demjanjuk’s participation in the murders at Sobibor was voluntarily and extensive. As a wachmanner, an auxiliary guard, Demjanjuk had volunteered for his Nazi service and was trained at the Trawniki camp, where he was armed – at Sobibor, he was given leave and could have escaped at any time, and that he participated in every phase of the murders – the rounding up of Jews, herding them into the gas chambers – in each phase, he was complicit.
Several co-plaintiffs, individuals whose family members had been murdered at Sobibor during the period in question, Dutch Jews, were allowed to testify. They gave moving testimony of how they were separated from their families and spent the war years in hiding. The testified as to how their deported family members believed they were being taken to the East and how some were convinced they would survive and be reunited one day. Each confirmed that they learned of the deaths of their relative at Sobibor through Red Cross lists.
The defense spent the first week launching a grab bag of motions arguing that the trial should be dismissed for a host of reasons, the illegality of the US deportation, and double jeopardy arising out Demjanjuk’s prior acquittal in Israel. The defense also argued that the Judges could not sentence Demjanjuk who is alleged to have been a mere guard at Sobibor, when the trials of Sobibor officials in the 1960s resulted in acquittals or in sentences of less time than Demjanjuk served in Israeli prison during the course of his trial there. Finally, the defense argued that Demjanjuk was no perpetrator but a victim himself, a soviet prisoner of war who would have been murdered had he had not followed orders and that his actions at the camp were no worse than those of the Jewish Kapos who were put in charge of other Jewish inmates or of the Jewish sonderkommando, the Jews who were in the area of the gas chambers. Some courtroom attendees booed when such comparisons were made and the prosecution and co-plaintiff’s attorneys dismissed such comparisons saying the distinction was simple, “the guards murdered: the jews were murdered.” The court replied that it would respond to the motions in time.
As for Demjanjuk, much time was spent discussing his health. His attorneys claimed he was not fit to stand trial and had leukemia. The doctors who examined him found him to have a low grade bone marrow disease which was not leukemia and was low risk. He was found able to stand trial. Nonetheless, Demjanjuk arrived to court on the first two days by ambulance, and entered the first court session in a wheel chair and thereafter on a stretcher. He wore a blue baseball cap and covered himself in a blue blanket. During most of the trial time he closed his eyes and on occasion turned on his side. When asked questions by the court, he did not reply, his attorney responding that Demjanjuk was exercising his right to remain silent. At one point, during the survivor’s testimony, Demjanjuk crossed himself and mumbled some prayers. On the morning of the third day of trial, Demjanjuk had a slight fever and the court postponed the trial – which as per the court schedule will resume December 21.
December 2, 2009 | 7:32 pm
Demjanjuk trial opens in Munich
Posted by Tom Teicholz
The trial of John Demjanjuk, 89, who is accused of being an accessory to more than 28,000 deaths at the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi occupied Poland during the time he is alleged to have served there as a guard, began today in Munich, Germany.
I am writing this not from Munich, but from Santa Monica, CA where thanks to Google news, official press releases from the Bavarian Justice Ministry and the links sent by colleagues I will do my best to both distill and comment on the proceedings.
The opening of the trial was delayed for an hour because of the large number of press wishing to attend, more than 247 of whom were accredited to attend. The court room, room 101 of the Munich Regional Court holds only 147 persons — as a result only 60 press members were allowed in the court room. Video of the event shows long lines, police fences and policemen in quasi-riot gear (I only saw three) surveying the crowd waiting to enter. More than 30 mainly Dutch co-plaintiffs who had lost family members in Sobibor filled the first two rows of the public gallery.
Before the trial could begin there was some procedural and housekeeping matters.
The defense raised the issue of Demjanjuk’s health saying that he had numerous ailments including leukemia. However, two hours before trial a court appointed physician examined Demjanjuk and found his vital conditions “stable.” The court has limited court sessions to two ninety minute sessions a day, three days a week, with one week break every three, in order to accommodate Demjanjuk’s advanced age.
Demjanjuk arrived at court in an ambulance. He entered the court in a wheelchair, wearing a blue baseball cap, and covered by a blue blanket, but looking remarkably the same as he did twenty years ago when he was on trial in Israel.
Demjanjuk did not answer any of the judges’ questions concerning his personal information other than to moan or make noises and he continued to do so throughout the hearing, at one point seeming to be having trouble breathing.
A half-hour after the proceedings began, Demjanjuk began to wave his arms in pain. The Court called for a half-hour recess, while Demjanjuk was treated. In the afternoon, Demjanjuk arrived in court on a stretcher rather than in a wheel chair. The court spent some time determining if he was fit to stand trial and concluded he was.
One of the attendees at the trial, Martin Hass who is a relative of survivors and lost many other relatives in the Holocaust, commented to the BBC that although he viewed the trial as an “honorable” example of a democratic system, he found Demjanjuk’s facial gestures and sounds, “theater-like.” and accordingly, “unfortunate.”
Ulrich Busch, Demjanjuk’s defense attorney, argued that the Court could not try Demjanjuk as they were prevented from doing so by a “double standard” under which Germany found many Germans innocent during the Sobibor trials of the 1960s in Germany. “How can he have aided in a crime to which other people were acquitted? Ulrich said. If the German commanders were innocent, the defense argued, how could one even try a guard who a “slave” to them.
The Defense, while not admitting that Demjanjuk was at Sobibor — they said Demjanjuk did not recall serving at Sobibor — nonetheless made the argument that the guards were no different than the Jewish prisoners, such as Thomas Blatt, a California man who survived Sobibor and was attending the trial and was a potential witness — all were forced to obey the Germans or be killed, the defense argued. Demjanjuk was a “victim” of the Nazis, not a perpetrator of crimes, he said.
“He is as much as victim as those people who were imprisoned in the camp but he is being treated as if he was a mass murderer, when in fact he didn’t even have any choice whether he was there or not,” Ulrich reportedly said. According to some accounts, attendees in the court gasped and even booed when hearing these claims.
The Prosecution took issue with these arguments. State Prosector Hans Joachim Lutz said they could not compare the trials held then by recently de-Nazified Judiciary with the judiciary today who were free to hold their own trials and come to their own conclusions.
Cornelius Nestler representing some of the co-plaintiffs said the differences between Demjanjuk and his victims were clear. The guards were armed and were given leave and many opportunities to leave the camp and escape — the Jews had no such option. The guards murdered; and the Jews were murdered, so how could one compare the two?
Judge Alt agreed, dismissing the defense motion.
The trial is scheduled to take place over the next six months, but no one really knows how long it will take or whether Demjanjuk will see the trial to its conclusion. However, according to Time magazine, for many of the survivors and the relatives of those murdered at Sobibor, they were relieved that trial had opened.
We should not take that for granted. In Munich, the city where Hitler held his beerhall putsch, where the Nazi party was founded, and where it was headquartered during the war — In Munich, which saw the treaty of appeasement with Chamberlain and the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics — In Munich, Germany. the trial of John Demjanjuk began today, for crimes committed at the Sobibor extermination camp more than 60 years ago, a trial of a Ukrianian-born Nazi collaborator, a wachmann auxiliary guard, at a camp purposed for the extermination of Jews in Nazi occupied Poland began today, prosecuted, defended, and judged by Germans, part of a generation born since the war. We should not take that for granted.
April 14, 2009 | 4:28 pm
Appeals court issues stay of Demjanjuk’s deportation
Posted by Tom Teicholz
According the AP, two judges on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals have stayed Demjanjuk’s deportation while they consider whether they even have the jurisdiction to issue a stay.
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