Wes Anderson, Stephen King, John Hodgman, and JSF mourn Salinger; Bret Easton Ellis rejoices

Published Jan 29 2010, 05:42 PM by Carrie Battan

We have to hand it to the Onion for writing the ultimate J.D. Salinger tribute; this truly is the final word on the subject. And yet, we couldn't help but notice these other notable eulogies that have come rumbling through the tubes over the last two days:

Wes Anderson

On New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, Anderson says: "He always struck me as an odd candidate for hermitage — despite his flights of antisocial mysticism, the energy of Salinger’s prose was relentlessly sociable, charming, and connective. He was practically sitting right there with you as you read, reaching over and turning the pages. It seemed ridiculous that in real life he was nowhere to be found. But that was one of the exciting things about him: You had to imagine Salinger, the actual man, the same way you imagined his characters — to summon the reality out of a disembodied voice." [via Vulture]

Bret Easton Ellis

"Yeah!! Thank God he's finally dead. I've been waiting for this day for-fucking-ever. Party tonight!!" [via his Twitter]

Stephen King

"I wasn’t a huge Salinger fan, but I’m sorry to hear of his passing — the way you’d feel if you heard an eccentric, short-tempered, but often fascinating uncle had passed away. Not as great a loss as Beverly Jensen (her marvelous The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay will be published this summer), who wrote only one book before dying of cancer at the age of 49, or of Raymond Carver, who was barely into his 50s; Salinger was, after all, in his 90s.

But it is a milestone of sorts, because Salinger was the last of the great post-WWII American writers, and in Holden Caulfield — maybe the greatest American-boy narrator since Huck Finn — he created an authentic Voice of the Age: funny, anxious, at odds with himself, and badly lost.

Salinger’s death may answer one question that has intrigued readers, writers, and critics for nearly half a century — what literary trove of unpublished work may he have left behind? Much? Some? Or none? Salinger is gone, but if we’re lucky, he may have more to say, even so." [via Entertainment Weekly]

John Hodgman

Tweeted: "I prefer to think JD Salinger has just decided to become extra reclusive." [via his Twitter]

Jonathan Sanfran Foer

"Many readers were created by The Catcher in The Rye, and many writers, too ... He and his characters embodied a kind of American resistance that has been sorely missed these last few years, and will now be missed even more." [via the AP, by way of the Boston Herald]