Catcher in the Rye and TKMockingbird out of American Schools

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anyone read The Invisible Man (not the scifi)?

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

He published under another name and a century later. His perspective was expanded as he was now a she and working in a sweat shop in China. The work isn't readily available in the Western world at this point, but it will be made into a movie starring Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johannsen, to be released in 2015 or so.

[Coito ergo sum]

While we are at it, who wrote Gone with the Wind for Margaret Mitchell? Seeing as no author capable of writing a Pulitzer prize winning novel can posibly only have one book in them!

And while we are at it, when is Oscar's sequel to Dorian Grey coming out? Or the follow-up to Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago? And which of the other Brontë sisters wrote Wuthering Heights for Emily?

Invisible Man, mentioned above, was Ralph Ellison's only published work, Black Beauty was Anna Sewell's, A Confederacy of Dunces (another Pulitzer winner) was Toole's and Sylvia Plath's only excursion into lengthy prose was the Bell Jar. Who did the ghost writing for these? Was Capote really that prolific?

I am afraid that you are guilty of repeating a long-disproven urban myth, CES. Harper Lee wrote TKAM. Capote's only involvement was in urging her to pulish it despite her protestations that it wasn't anywhere near good enough!

Thank you, Xamonas-- I was going to come back with some of this, but you beat me to the punch. It's good, though-- a point worth punching.

Is it? See my post above. Why would O'Toole's posthumous publication, post-suicide, of Confederacy of Dunces, have any bearing on the issue? Is it surprising that a guy who wrote a book which was only published after his relatively young age suicide never wrote another book.

And, AGAIN -- all these sarcastic remarks about about how "she could NEVER have written TKaM because she only wrote one book and that's not how writers work..." etc. are misplaced. I did not say she COUlDN'T have written it, or even that she DIDN'T write. For the love of Christ -- all I said was that the the suspicion crossed my mind and that I was surprised to find out later that there was a serious theory about that very thing which was discussed in literary circles. There is no need to keep punching at me like this as if this is some idea I pulled our of my ass which is just so ridiculous to contemplated.

Another is this-- Truman Capote was one of the most devoted self-promoting authors of his time. Chances of him not putting his name on a work of his were just about zero-- particularly if that work went on to become a giant, best-selling, prize-winning hit.

A couple other points-- Harper Lee did indeed publish other works-- just not another novel. She wrote articles and anthologized short stories. And she started two other books-- a novel, when she was younger, that she decided not to finish, and a non-fiction book, in the 80s, that she set aside because she was unsatisfied with it.

Good points.

Although, I have to say, given the choice between being prolific, or having one wildly successful and well-loved work, boy, I'd go with the latter. Unfortunately, no one's giving me the choice!

Keep writing and keep submitting it to publishers by the bucket load. As you probably know, many great writers get hundreds upon hundreds of rejection letters, and send stories to several publishers over the course of months and years.

[Coito ergo sum]

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

Why the sarcasm, Hades?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

Why the sarcasm, Hades?

It's a play on the preceding comments starting with GWTW.

[hadespussercats]

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

Why the sarcasm, Hades?

What's wrong with sarcasm?

[hadespussercats]

Hey, there's no way Ralph Ellison wrote that. It's his only published work. That's not how writers pursue their craft, Zilla. Don't you know anything?

Why the sarcasm, Hades?

What's wrong with sarcasm?

As for this:

For the love of Christ -- all I said was that the the suspicion crossed my mind and that I was surprised to find out later that there was a serious theory about that very thing which was discussed in literary circles. There is no need to keep punching at me like this as if this is some idea I pulled our of my ass which is just so ridiculous to contemplated.

Why the anger, Coito? You said yourself you were asserting a suspicion with no evidence-- how is that not an idea you pulled out of your ass? And why not attempt to show you why you are almost certainly incorrect in your suspicions?

[Coito ergo sum]

Why the anger, Coito? You said yourself you were asserting a suspicion with no evidence-- how is that not an idea you pulled out of your ass? And why not attempt to show you why you are almost certainly incorrect in your suspicions?

it's not anger -- it's frustration, because you are implying, well and actually coming out and saying, that I said that she couldn't possibly have written the book. I never said that. I said the opposite. Of course she could have written the book. That doesn't mean that it's not a bit curious that she didn't write anything more of consequence for the last 50+ years.

I also never said Capote wrote it, or that I had suspected that he did. I said OTHER literary folks had raised that suspicion for a variety of reasons and that I wound up being surprised to find out that that suspicion was out there. It struck me as funny, given that it crossed my mind that maybe Harper Lee did not write it, and then later I found out that there was a serious theory interposed over many years that she hand not written it.

I have no issue with you showing that I am almost certainly incorrect in my suspicions, just as people have sought to disprove the assertion that Truman Capote may have written the book. That's different than making sarcastic remarks which misstate what I actually said, i.e. - strawmanning to state and/or imply that I said she couldn't possibly have written the book because she never wrote another novel.

Again - of course it's possible she wrote the book. FFS -- people have speculated seriously about whether Shakespeare was truly the writer of some or even all of the plays that bear his name. If someone mentioned that they had suspected Shakespeare might not have written them, would you respond with sarcastic remarks like, "yeah right! Like it's totally impossible that Shakespeare wrote his own plays! No way he possibly wrote his own plays..." That's what I'm getting at.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Why the anger, Coito? You said yourself you were asserting a suspicion with no evidence-- how is that not an idea you pulled out of your ass? And why not attempt to show you why you are almost certainly incorrect in your suspicions?

it's not anger -- it's frustration, because you are implying, well and actually coming out and saying, that I said that she couldn't possibly have written the book. I never said that. I said the opposite. Of course she could have written the book. That doesn't mean that it's not a bit curious that she didn't write anything more of consequence for the last 50+ years.

I also never said Capote wrote it, or that I had suspected that he did. I said OTHER literary folks had raised that suspicion for a variety of reasons and that I wound up being surprised to find out that that suspicion was out there. It struck me as funny, given that it crossed my mind that maybe Harper Lee did not write it, and then later I found out that there was a serious theory interposed over many years that she hand not written it.

I have no issue with you showing that I am almost certainly incorrect in my suspicions, just as people have sought to disprove the assertion that Truman Capote may have written the book. That's different than making sarcastic remarks which misstate what I actually said, i.e. - strawmanning to state and/or imply that I said she couldn't possibly have written the book because she never wrote another novel.

Again - of course it's possible she wrote the book. FFS -- people have speculated seriously about whether Shakespeare was truly the writer of some or even all of the plays that bear his name. If someone mentioned that they had suspected Shakespeare might not have written them, would you respond with sarcastic remarks like, "yeah right! Like it's totally impossible that Shakespeare wrote his own plays! No way he possibly wrote his own plays..." That's what I'm getting at.

Nothing but strawmen! People like you always come out with this kind of thing! I only tried to reason with you but you jumped down my throat! AND STOP CALLING ME GAY!!1!!!

[hadespussercats]

Your gay.

[Drewish]

Your gay.

What? He escaped?! I thought I had my gay locked away. Somebody catch him!

[hadespussercats]

Your gay.

What? He escaped?! I thought I had my gay locked away. Somebody catch him!

You bet he escaped. The horror... the unbelievable horror...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Your gay.

What? He escaped?! I thought I had my gay locked away. Somebody catch him!

You bet he escaped. The horror... the unbelievable horror...

[hadespussercats]

Just to clarify-- I think insulting someone by calling him gay goes with a poor grasp on the proper use of apostrophes.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just to clarify-- I think insulting someone by calling him gay goes with a poor grasp on the proper use of apostrophes.

We could work up a profile based on that.

[JimC]

Just to clarify-- I think insulting someone by calling him gay goes with a poor grasp on the proper use of apostrophes.

But I thought gays liked to be grasped by the apostrophes?