Slashdot Mirror
Unpublished J. D. Salinger Stories Leaked On Bittorrent Site
192_kbps writes "Catcher in the Rye author J. D. Salinger wrote the short story The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls and left depository copies with a few academic libraries with the understanding that the work would not see mass distribution until the mid-21st century. The only authorized place to read the story is in a special reading room at Princeton where electronics are not allowed and a librarian continuously babysits the reader. A PDF of the story, as well as two other unpublished stories, appeared on private bittorrent site what.cd where a huge bounty had been placed for the work. Incredibly, the uploader (or someone connected to the uploader) bought an unauthorized copy on eBay for a pittance. The file, Three Stories, is making the bittorrent rounds but can also be read on mediafire."
This is a great example of where copyright helps to encourage authors to write more. The fact that this copy has been leaked, and pirated massively means that Salinger has no incentive to write any more! We need to punish the perpetrators thoroughly.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Yes I'm sure he'll cease his heretofore amazingly prolific career forthwith
On the contrary, now he has to write another story to keep secret!
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
https://kickass.to/three-stories-j-d-salinger-pdf-t8257205.html
https://torcache.net/torrent/ED8F9DE4B9151B3B0E5B998CAF7A124E9E7B0E17.torrent?title=%5Bkickass.to%5Dthree.stories.j.d.salinger.pdf
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ED8F9DE4B9151B3B0E5B998CAF7A124E9E7B0E17&dn=three+stories+j+d+salinger+pdf&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337
Slashdot fucks up magnet links, but the hash is right there: ED8F9DE4B9151B3B0E5B998CAF7A124E9E7B0E17
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
...we wouldn't want to respect the wishes of an author so widely admired. He put words on paper, so fuck him. They stopped belonging to him when they saw the light of day.
I love this socialist half-paradise, where Wall Street profits are privatized, gigantic losses from gambling with people's deposits are publicly insured, and intellectual works are treated like a turkey thrown into a pit filled with hyenas.
How did this paper book's publishers get a copy of the story? They seem to have put out an unauthorized limited-edition run of 25 copies in 1999, but from what source?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Writing your story posthumously is the best way to keep it secret.
which is totally what she said
I expect this will start a bit of a witch hunt...
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
.....oooooosh.
As a foreigner, I'd never heard of Salinger or Catcher in the Rye. When I first made it to the US, my friend gave me the book: "You HAVE to read that". I was underwhelmed and to this day still do not understand what all the fuss is about. A story about a whiney teenager with too much money for his own good ? This describe America pretty well to me !!!
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Funny that I don't see anyone talk about the stories themselves, just the news surrounding their acquisition... Is there some radical content in these stories, something of super-human insight or intelligence, that was supposed to be locked away for a good reason?
Incredibly, the uploader (or someone connected to the uploader) bought an unauthorized copy on eBay for a pittance
One presumes then that although this stuff is now kept under lock and key, it wasn't always so carefully protected?
I'm all over these torrents. What are they going to do, sue me? Let me see - me and about 3000 other seeders, and a few hundred leeches. I don't own anything worth taking, and my working life is nearing an end - what do you think they can gain by suing me?
Funny thing - all the working magnets seem to be DHT and PeX. Interesting that. I wonder how many are using anonymizing programs on their torrent clients? Ha! Glancing through the list of peers, a fair number are coming through proxies that are easily recognizable as proxies.
I suspect that the reason we haven't heard of any high-profile suites over torrenting, is that the gestapos *IAA organizations can't reliably identify "infringers" any longer.
Whatever - I want to read the stories, and see what I think of them.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Slightly overweight visitor: "Ok, Glass..."
Heavily-Armed Librarian Guardian: "What did you say?"
Slightly overweight visitor: "Uh, I said... looking classy... Looking classy, Mr. Salinger!"
Heavily-Armed Librarian Guardian: "Shh."
[ later that day ]
Heavily-Armed Librarian Guardian: "I wonder why that guy was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask."
You clearly don't understand copyright law.
This is a great example of where copyright helps to encourage authors to write more. The fact that this copy has been leaked, and pirated massively means that Salinger has no incentive to write any more! We need to punish the perpetrators thoroughly.
It is a disincentive to trust your unpublished manuscripts, papers and memoirs to Princeton --- it is easier to speak candidly if no one living will have to bear the consequences.
TROLL!!!
Nobody understands copyright law.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'll agree it might not deserve its place of regard near the apex of American literature but it certainly isn't crap. Maybe it no longer should be one of the five or six books we determinedly cram down every high schoolers throat anymore but someone seriously interested in American literature still needs to pay it a visit for certain.
It was a work of avaunt guard art in its day. There really was little in the way of "modern" coming of age works at the time, and nobody had done a novel length narrative in stream of conscience. The fact he did both and created a book that most people at least like well enough to finish even if they find they can't identify suggests its actually a pretty good book.
Some of its artistic greatness comes from the fact that it was unique. There have been lots of imitators who have created lots of crap since, but the original deserves a little reverence. If in visual arts I took a canvas painted half orange and half yellow and then drew a read smear down the center you'd rightly call it crap; but when Mark Rothko did expressed something and said something nobody had ever done before. What exactly I am not sure but when you see "Orange, Red, Yellow" you do react to it. The fact that someone was willing to put it out there and assert, this can be art, makes it special in a way no derivative work ever can be; its similar with Catcher.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
In the movie Conspiracy Theory (1997) Jetty Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is obsessed with Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and does not know why (she swallowed the fly). His apartment is full of unread copies. It turns out that the spooks who monkeyed with his mind planted the suggestion to purchase copies of it because the relative unpopularity of the book made it an excellent way to track his movements electronically.
Today there is discussion on this thread of people who feel compelled to download these torrents, and the possibility of being traced by some shadowy well-connected organization while doing so.
Bring on the evil MK-ULTRA mastermind, Captain Jean Luc Picard.
[Walking through a metal detector]
Jerry Fletcher: Why is this thing safe for me and not for my keys?
Jerry Fletcher: July eighth, 1979, all the fathers of Nobel Prize winners were rounded up by United Nations military units, all right, and actually forced at gunpoint to give semen samples in little plastic jars, which are now stored below Rockefeller Center underneath the ice skating rink...
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Didn't stop Tupac.
That is why Nobody is highly regarded as an expert witness in copyright cases.
Really - they suck. As stand alone stories, they are worthless. If you actually know something about Salinger, and his life, then the stories might mean something.
First story: "I took my kid brother in to town for oysters, then we went to the beach, he swam for a bit, and he collapsed. Took him home, he died, end of story."
Unfortunately, my version is probably slightly more coherent than Salinger's version.
The other two stories aren't any better.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
That story mentioned in the summary about the baseball player is supposed to be good, I hear. I've never read it. Something like "Field of Dreams".
rewriting history since 2109
I'm thinking of changing my name to Nobody. Aside from causing general confusion I could easily make a living suing people for defamation. "Nobody would be that stupid" - now you owe me $$$ for damaging my reputation!
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
This is really nice articles and great dicussion
Really.
Catcher is a fine thing. Even if it were misused to program "lone crazed gunmen".
But really, Salinger. You are a bizarre and maladjusted narcissistic twat. It's one thing NOT to publish - or even burn your own work. But being so fucking precious as to specify conditions of release? Fuck you, Sir. In the most sanctimonious way possible.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
If it wasn't for Mark David Chapman, how many people would even know about the "Catcher In The Rye"?
Seeing as how it's been on the highschool reading list for half a centruy already, I'm guessing at least 50 million?
Oh sorry, my bad. I thought you asked about how many people read the "Catcher In The Rye".
As for how many knowing about it, probably vast majority of English speaking world, 400 million, give or take.
Maybe Princeton shouldn't be in the business of playing gatekeeper to a dead man's paranoiac death wishes about publication. If Salinger was a serial killer or a despot, would Princeton feel morally obliged to follow his wishes about what he wanted published after his death?
The fact that copyright lasts for the author's life "+ X years" where X gets increased every time it nearly expires means that we have infinite copyright, which is blatantly unconstitutional, and definitely contrary to the original stated purpose of US copyright law.
If Salinger wanted to keep his precious manuscripts away from the public eye, instead of granting precious sanctimonious access of it through an agreement with Princeton, maybe he should have entrusted it to a private individual, or an institution without a duty to higher learning, such as a legal firm or a publishing house.
Does anyone even still use that phrase? I always liked it.
Maybe Princeton shouldn't be in the business of playing gatekeeper to a dead man's paranoiac death wishes about publication. .
what.cd admins took down the file out of respect to the author as well. Princeton's not the only gatekeeper in this story.
It proves people still read, and not just the tossoff-of-the-day about vampires. I've never read Catcher despite my English minor, but I'd be more apt to read these three stories not only because they're p1r4t3d but as silent testimony that people still value literature.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
That's a bit harsh. Did you say the same thing when Samuel Clemens's autobiography was released, 100 years after his death?
Just like Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land today is a good read but not that special. But back in 1960 when it came out, holy fuck!
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Yes.
Crap.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It seems that these are stories from the late 1940s - early 1950s.
Years ago I had already found a document with uncollected Salinger stories (meaning, they were published in magazines, but never collected afterwards in book form). These were for the most part older work that in my opinion is not as elegantly crafted as his well known books and short stories. That document did also contain Hapworth 16, 1924 which was his last published story. I found it barely readable, strange as I have good memories of many of his published stories. A Perfect Day for Bananafish. For Esme, with Love and Squalor. Etc.
Now I have not revisited those cherished Salinger books in many years, so I don't know if I would still love them so much. But i am curious enough to give these newly uncovered stories a try.
HOWEVER, I would be much more interested in reading Salinger's later work, to see how his craft would evolve. If I am not mistaken, he has at least a few much more recent unpublished novels, which will now of course be very well guarded.
As an aside, in general I do NOT condone book piracy. I am an habitual buyer of paper books and kindle books. I don't mind paying for a cultural product. But sadly in this case the only way I will ever read these stories is through piracy. The chances are not that high that I will still be alive in 2060.
The author really wanted these and other unpublished work to be judged on its own merit, without being coloured about the notion of that reclusive author. I can see his point, but it is mightily frustrating.
You just gave me a great idea! I'm going to control the method of release for my new book. What will I do, you ask? Well ... I'm going to release it on twitter. One post - 140 characters - a day. And the last chapter? Those tweets won't even be in order. The masses can put that puzzle together on their own time.
. The fact that this copy has been leaked, and pirated massively means that Salinger has no incentive to write any more!
Unless it was his intent that this work be massively pirated. Creating a cookie jar that Must Not Be Opened is a great way to get people to open it and generate free publicity for whatever they find inside. I have zero clue about whatever Salinger might have been thinking.
But what I've heard of the "rules" for this work (in order to read this stuff, you had to sit in a particular room and be watched by a nanny) does make it sound like the point of the game was to break the rules.
that's the big question, for all we know it also could be just a story written by some person who just sold it for a lot of money...
The Catcher in the Rye was ok, not an amazing "classic", but i got some enjoyment out of it.
To Kill a Mockingbird gave much more impact, a better "classic" of american literature and more coherent.
Catch-22, another much touted "classic" was completely bizarre, but strangely enough, I enjoyed more than the first two.
So all three are kind of US classics, but there again, Shakespear's books/sonnets are also classics, and, if I may be blunt, pretty crap compared to a lot of other literature out there.
Ill recommend a book, something not in my usual line of reading, but really made a big impression on me: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
I'd call that one a classic.
Since only people who travel to this private reading room have ever read them, I'm assuming that one of them has confirmed that these torrented stories are actually the ones written by Salinger? Otherwise...
1) Hear about famous short stories that very few people have read, but many people would pay for,
2) Study Salinger's other works closely enough to be able to duplicate his writing style
3) Write a BS story 'in the style of Salinger', add the name of one of the unpublished stories
4) Add enough 'scanning' typos to make it seem legit
4 a) (Bonus points for running it around a bit through ebay, etc. to muddy the acquisition trail)
5) Submit for bounty
6) Profit!
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
Then you can be the next Nobody for President! I'd certainly vote for Nobody -- after all, Nobody will keep election promises, Nobody will listen to our concerns, Nobody tells the truth, Nobody will defend our rights, Nobody has all the answers, and Nobody cares.
("Logic" blatantly borrowed from the 38-year-old ongoing campaign for a "none of the above" option on ballots to combat voter apathy, presented humorously as Nobody For President by the Birthday Party.)
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
"...a dead man's paranoiac death wishes about publication."
It's called a contract. It has legal force. What is your problem with this?
It might be a strange contract, but it's still a contract.
Some people still life in the free world.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's funny to me that the whole "Salinger is overrated" thread revolves around Catcher in the Rye, with no mention of his other works.
There's a good argument to be made that Catcher in the Rye is, indeed, over-rated. (It's one of those books which is so highly regarded, and so widely read, that it can fairly be called "over-rated" even if you think it's pretty good). I would definitely argue that "Nine Stories" is a better piece of work. If you haven't read "The Laughing Man", you should take half an hour out of your life and do it immediately-- I think it's one of the best short stories ever written.
(Short digression: I once had the pleasure of meeting a successful writer of musicals, and for some reason, I spent 20 minutes talking to him about how I thought "The Laughing Man" would be great to adapt into a musical. The writer seemed to be amused by the whole idea, or at least he didn't try to back away from me slowly. Of course I now realize that the whole conversation was moot-- he never would have gotten the rights!)
Anyway:
"Catcher in the Rye" belongs to a very specific genre which, let's face it, not everyone likes. It's a coming-of-age novel about a relatively wealthy and privileged teenager who is being groomed for a specific type of wealthy and privileged adulthood, and who realizes at the start of the novel that he does not want the sort of life he is being groomed for. (See also: Siddharta, Tonio Kroger, and on and on).
Not everyone wants to read a novel about that, and that's fine. But I think Catcher in the Rye will keep attracting fans simply because the narrative voice is so distinctive. Remember when the Onion published an obituary of Salinger that was written in the style of Holden Caulfield? Everyone got the joke, because Holden's voice (or even an imitation of Holden's voice) is one that you recognize immediately.
I'd also argue that what Salinger did-- writing a full length novel which is narrated by a child/adolescent-- is pretty hard to pull off successfully. Mark Twain did it with Huckleberry Finn, and there was a good novel by Mark Haddon which did the same thing (The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time), but I can't think of too many other examples.
I think his death in 2010 is probably a bit of a disincentive too.
Bullshit. Why do you think copyright extends for 70 years after the death of the author?
Who is John Galt?
They took it down because it was causing them problems. What.cd certainly doesn't actually care about "respect" for a dead author's wishes.