J.D. Salinger was regularly published in exclusive literary magazines like the New Yorker...

J.D. Salinger was regularly published in exclusive literary magazines like the New Yorker, influenced fantastic authors like John Updike and Phillip Roth, and is frequently cited as one of the best American writers of the 20th century.

He also had a recorded IQ of 104, was a terrible student, and flunked out of three different colleges.

Maybe I'm projecting here, but I think that both readers and writers have an unfortunate tendency to get hung up on the appearance and demonstration of intelligence. You can create evocative and even intelligent art without being a genius yourself. There were thousands of writers who were smarter than Salinger and producing literature at the same time he was, but virtually all of them were not as entertaining and have already been forgotten by time.

An emotional connection to the audience is much more important than an intellectual one, and that connection can come from pretty much anyone if they're given the proper time and experience toward developing artistic skill.

Him and Steinbeck give me some hope that I don't have to finish college to be decently successful or god forbid, "accomplished" in life as a writer.

Are you working on anything, user?

Salinger is without a doubt my favorite writer. He had a truly unique style, which made him one of the preeminent American writers of the 20th century. He's, like, my writing idol.

Worry not, friend! According to whom do you need a ritzy college degree in order to write literature?

It's also worth noting that Salinger took a writing course or two at Columbia.

No one said you couldn't the dumb, user. You just have to be a kike.

>You just have to be a kike.

Yeah, in all honesty, this does really help your chances of getting published.

What if you're black and interested in judaism (like enough to convert)?

it helps your chances at everything except being a decent human being

>An emotional connection to the audience is much more important than an intellectual one,

What is your definition of importance? I don't feel one should cowtow to the least common denominator of man, even if they are the most prevalent types of people.

We should be striving towards creating a critically thinking civilization, not one that absorbs material based on how "feel-good" that material is.

...

You're right. It's just life is coming at me hard and there's plenty of people who bite the bullet. I'm such a bad student and I hate the collegiate system because everyone wants me to be here but I've only acquired debt. I could blame the school or myself, but I think even at a "good" school I would hate it and do poorly. Here's to writing.

if someone wanted to get into his work where would u recomend to do that ?

You can convert, but that doesn't mean you're a descendent of Israel, which they will be able to tell from a mile away. Sorry, friend.

A library

What's updike?

Damn

Having read his work, I doubt that Salinger had an IQ of 104; and as for not doing well in school, there are a hundred more likely reasons than that he wasn't intelligent. I agree to an extent - that you do not have to be a genius to create great and worthwhile art

>An emotional connection to the audience is much more important than an intellectual one

I would argue that being able to properly establish an "emotional connection" with an audience is a form of intelligence in and of itself. IQ isn't a very accurate measure of intellect. I think artistic talent is a form of intelligence, alongside logic and reasoning. There was a Harvard study that seems to concur with my reasoning. I'll see if I can find it.

>An emotional connection to the audience is much more important than an intellectual one
hmmm, I think both are pretty much equally as important, but the emotional connections should be first

And the only way to refine your technique is to challenge yourself to make ever more satisfying works for yourself.
Since it's just you and a page, your taste in how the language comes off is paramount. Which words you use. How long you want sentences. How much detail-
Basically - you're doomed if you have the wrong taste that doesn't jive with the zeitgeist. Literally, you're the wrong person for the job, your entire life full of nonsense you've convinced yourself matters.
Does writing only matter to you when you get adulation from others? Then - you'll be waiting your career for that response, damning yourself when people don't share your specific and personal experience with language and your worldview.

I say - screw genius, screw accolades, screw writing, and screw Veeky Forums.
If you want to complain that you're not enough because of whatever mewling snippet of emotional claptrap you manage to pump out from your sweaty cum-stained fingers to put words together like any other man across time and space did to possibly actually get laid and make money so you can spend it all on whores and anime figurines so a bunch of old farts will masturbate over your desiccated corpse and masticate your every written word-

then by all means. Be my guest.
Or you could fucking write like a real man.

An emotional connection is often more than feel-good sentiment.

nothing much, and please don't call me any homosexual slurs.

way i see it, iq says more about your potential than what you'll actually accomplish. a fully-realized 104 beats out a 124 who felt he was to intelligent too hone his craft.

>least common denominator of man
>critically thinking civilization
>"feel-good"
I don't even know how to argue other than saying that you are misunderstanding the OP and projecting.

>>Basically - you're doomed if you have the wrong taste that doesn't jive with the zeitgeist.

well, I guess you're doomed, ya fuckin jive-ass illiterate.

>without being a genius
Genius is not a state of being. It has only recently taken up that implication.

This

I feel like artists or scientists or whoever only have flashes of "genius" which usually just manifests as inspiration from various circumstances

What you do with inspiration is what counts

>He also had a recorded IQ of 104
That's pretty funny, because that's the exact number Holden's perception corresponds to.

It is also about have a prepared and steadfast mind to appropriately use that inspiration

Nine stories

I think it's important to note that Salinger took and did well in College writing courses(when he tried), spoke French and German, and worked for the counterintelligence interrogating POW's in WW2. He was a smart guy, just an underachiever in things he didn't care about.
Also, Charlie Chaplin stole his qt waifu Oona O'Neill.
>I can see them at home evenings. Chaplin squatting grey and nude, atop his chiffonier, swinging his thyroid around his head by his bamboo cane, like a dead rat. Oona in an aquamarine gown, applauding madly from the bathroom.

>No one said you couldn't the dumb
>couldn't the dumb
>could not the dumb

U r a fucking imbecile, aside from being an anti semite