indoor animal light ~ 5

The last indoor animal light, because summer is coming to an end. Two weeks ago, I finished rereading another book: Franny and Zooey.

This one's by Jerome David Salinger. Most folks only know his novel The Catcher in the Rye, but I can confirm that his other works – Nine Stories, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, Franny and Zooey – are all deeper, better, more interesting. Each of them is short, too, and easy to read. Just fyi – in case you are looking for your next book.

The Glass family, who plays prominently in many of those works, can be laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreaking, and profound, and Salinger often weaves all of these emotions within a single sentence. I will write more on J.D. no doubt in the near future – remind me to talk about how I was reading him by Lake Lucerne in Switzerland if I don't include it then – as he has been a major influence on my own writing.

For now, I'll keep it light.

Within the novel Zooey, Salinger writes an introduction of sorts, teasing out what's to come and setting expectations:

To get straight to the worst, what I'm about to offer isn't really a short story at all but a sort of prose home movie, and those who have seen the footage have strongly advised me against nurturing any elaborate distribution plans for it.

Putting himself, and his work, down a bit at the onset. He didn't think anyone would care. But I can assure, by story's end, this is not a nothing story. It cuts to the quick. Because it's about way more than it seems. And Salinger worries it may be a mistake for him to share it as an author:

It's the leading man, however, who has made the most eloquent appeal to me to call off the production. He feels that the plot hinges on mysticism, or religious mystification–in any case, he makes it very clear, a too vividly apparent transcendent elements of sorts, which he says he's worried can only expedite, move up, the day and hour of my professional undoing. People are already shaking their heads over me, and any immediate further professional use on my part of the word "God," except as a familiar, healthy American expletive, will be taken–or, rather, confirmed–as the very worst kind of name-dropping and a sure sign that I'm going straight to the dogs. Which is, of course, something to give any normal fainthearted man, and particularly writing man, pause. And it does. But only pause.

But only pause... Thankfully. J.D. keeps going, tells the tale. And my life is better for it. This introduction reminds me it is important for creators to write about, or paint, or make, what they want to write about, or paint, or make. Don't let others, especially not the industries and markets, dictate what you deem worth creating. The whole work of Franny and Zooey gets at why a person should do something, do anything. Spoiler alert: it isn't for selfish reasons. Franny and Zooey bravely presents a question, but also gives an answer. Take it or leave it, Salinger challenges the reader.

Maybe this wasn't so light after all. My bad.

indoor animal is curated by a human: Tim Papciak. On Mondays, he shares one link to one music video to help spark creativity in himself and in other creative types. On Thursdays, he recommends a book, movie, show, art piece, or link to some dusty corner of the internet that he believes either 1.) adds to the human experience, or 2.) serves as a coping mechanism in the year 2025. Note: this is not, and never will be, self-help content.