artist_names epitome of incomprehensibility Wordsworth: appropriate poet name is appropriate. And I wandered lonely as a Claude: specifically Claude Cahun, an apt-sounding name for a French surrealist. Dunno know why I didn't read about her/them when I was taught about Andre Breton's crowd, but the prof couldn't include everyone. Also: visual art, not writing. But then Man Ray was there. A canon biased towards men. And rays. Should be biased more towards raze! Raze the roof, carpenters. Salinger had a problem with idealizing people instead of trusting them, but his stories stand the test of free association. But raze does better, lyrically. lines lyric lines lines on a piece of paper or a binary bind, bounding The knowledge of Cahun came via Google's picture of the day, of all things. And from Cahun doodle to Anand disambiguation: Anita Anand the writer isn't the same person as Anita Anand the politician. Different birthplaces. 211025 ... raze hey, you be careful saying nice things like that about me, free range e_o_i! i might get a big head about it and give myself a puffed-up sounding pen name like "fountain of uncouth pigment". (this also reminds me of the well_named blathe. i'd forgotten all about that one. some fun names there.) 211026 ... epitome of incomprehensibility To give needless detail on my free range thoughts in artist_names, I was thinking of a story by Salinger called "Raise the Roof, Carpenters." I enjoyed it, but it also seems that old JDS, IRL, ended up treating some people badly because he set them on proverbial pedestals and then pushed them off when they didn't live up to his expectations. An ex of his attested to this, at least according to an article I read. And while I wouldn't usually psychoanalyze a writer based on their writing - a shaky endeavor - it seems the pattern is borne out by the Seymour stories. It's okay for Seymour to throw a rock at someone; he's the genius. The victim is too externally perfect, innerly shallow. Or so he thinks. There's something tender_square wrote about men idealizing women. I can't find it now, but it seems to fit really well. I guess in Salinger it's not only women being idealized, but also the sensitive genius types, like Seymour. Plus those who are young and in need of protection. Holden in A Catcher in the Rye: can't really call him a genius, but weirdly insightful amidst his naivete. As is Esme in "For Esme - with Love and Squalor." Holden's little sister Phyllis is both innocence to be protected and good taste because she idolizes him; maybe when she grows up and challenges his ideas more, he won't think of her so fondly. His brother Allie dies before he can disappoint - maybe that's the disappointment, though? Disappointment seems too weak a word. Salinger writes grief well. I find Holden's angst believable; I'm not with those who think that he's whining over nothing or that the One True Message is that "Holden's the real phony" (what someone said to me, in almost those words). He's coming to terms with his brother's death, for goober's sake. Plus, he's physically ill as well as depressed (something like pneumonia, it seems). Another thing not always acknowledged: the narrative seems aware that he's not the worst off out there, being white, wealthy, young, and male. The practical details. And it's not that any of these characters aren't written well. In "A Girl I Knew," the idolizer is the story's narrator and he's aware on some level that his infatuation with this younger woman will come to nothing - but maybe this is a little different because the disappointment comes from external circumstances, not in John's interpretation of anything that Leah does. Still. The unattainable. Would Holden have liked Jane so much if she'd taken the initiative and called HIM? (Would her giving him a buzz not give him a buzz, soda speak?) Maybe then he'd just categorize her as a shallow Sally. But who knows. 211027 ... e_o_i No! I was going to put this in a blathe called Salinger. I'll do that. But what I meant to say HERE: I'd forgotten about well_named! But it doesn't surprise me that I had (something of) the same idea twice! And yes, I'll bet a banana split and a cup of ginger tea divided by zero that you write better songs than Salinger ever could. Maybe if he'd tried? But he didn't, the lazy bum on a drum. (Oh yes, just because I like a writer doesn't mean I don't subject them to criticism once in a while. It's good for them, especially the dead ones. Gives 'em something to talk about in heaven.) 211027 ... raze i've misblathed a time or sixteen myself. i even did it on the very blathe that was supposed to be about blathing things where you didn't mean to blathe them. and if you can believe it, i once wrote a song about "the catcher in the rye" for a grade eleven english class assignment! it was called "holden on" (very_punny, no?). i ended up playing it three times in two different classrooms on the same day. that was a wrinkle i didn't see coming. i even got to sing the word "goddamn". (that teacher gave me a surprisingly long creative leash. she was one of the good ones.) 211027 what's it to you? who go blather from