Oh Salinger

In all seriousness, of course the loss of J.D. Salinger is a tragedy. But, when I read this, part of me felt like he'd appreciate it...

"Bunch of phonies mourn J.D. Salinger"

"In this big dramatic production that didn't do anyone any good (and was pretty embarrassing, really, if you think about it), thousands upon thousands of phonies across the country mourned the death of author J.D. Salinger, who was 91 years old for crying out loud. "He had a real impact on the literary world and on millions of readers," said hot-shot English professor David Clarke, who is just like the rest of them, and even works at one of those crumby schools that rich people send their kids to so they don't have to look at them for four years. "There will never be another voice like his." Which is exactly the lousy kind of goddamn thing that people say, because really it could mean lots of things, or nothing at all even, and it's just a perfect example of why you should never tell anybody anything"

This just reminds us to be self-reflexive and not take ourselves too seriously, to see how ridiculous we are, which was part of the function of his work, no?