EPISODE NUMBER: 9146 (September 10, 2013)
GUESTS: Tobias Wolff | Shane Salerno
STAFF CAMEO: Max Werner
SEGMENTS: cOlbert’s Book Club - Everything but “The Catcher in the Rye” by JD Salinger | cOlbert’s Book Club - Better Know a Salinger | cOlbert’s Book Club - Sign Off - Glass Family
SUIT REPORT: Navy Pin Striped Suit | White Shirt | Purple Striped Tie
VIDEOS: Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Stephen attempts to stage a reading of “Catcher” as Holden Caulfield…before it gets shut down by legal.
The second installment of the cOlbert Book Club was a totally different experience than the first. Whereas the first book club had kind of a fun, flirty feel to it with guest Jennifer Egan, yet was focused on the themes of the characters in The Great Gatsby’s obsession and longing, this episode felt more like a fan’s personal tribute to Salinger. Few attempt to make light of Salinger’s heavy themes, but Stephen managed to make discussing the author’s life and work engaging and poignant.
It isn’t too often that Stephen schools his guests, but with the first guest, Tobias Wolff, Stephen seemed to articulate Salinger’s motivations in his short stories in an authoritative way. I have a feeling that Stephen very intimately understands Salinger’s work, and much like his understanding of Tolkien/Lord of the Rings, probably knows more about Salinger than most of us do. This was demonstrated when Stephen kept trying to put on Holden Caulfield’s hunting cap - he identifies with Holden and Holden’s struggles so much, clearly he must feel the same about Salinger as well. So, in summary, a nice episode dedicated to demonstrating his fan-appreciation. It was as good, or maybe better, than having the reclusive author himself on the show - something Stephen always said he wished could happen.
We will have much more on this episode guide, but what did you think of this installment of the book club? Do share in the comments.
The lovely cOlbert Book Club set is brought back, this time with some small changes to reflect the Salinger theme.
cOlbert’s Book Club - Everything but “The Catcher in the Rye” by JD Salinger
- Tonight we are stepping away from the conflict in Syria, because apparently, so is the United States.
Stephen’s take on U.S.’ shifting policy on Syria:
“It’s like if you decapitated a co-worker, so they are taking away your ax. But, you get to keep your job, and your hatchet. Be good, now, be good!”
- Now, as you know, I am a powerful media mogul. I’ve got my own show, I’ve got my best selling books, I’ve got an award winning twitter feed, and of course, I have my massive daily email blast of the internet’s best forwards. Critics have raved, “unsubscribe!”
- Speaking of drinking heavily, F. Scott Fitzgerald. That’s the author we talked about last night. Tonight we will be talking about the biggest initials in twentieth century literature, J.D. Salinger, a man so reclusive, his first two names are still secret.
- And we’ll be discussing the new documentary about Salinger with its director Shane Salerno, who also co-wrote the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon, which is why at the end of the documentary, Salinger blows himself up to save Ben Affleck. That’s based on a true story.
- Unfortunately Salinger cannot be with us tonight, either MTV booked him to be on the VMAs, or he died in 2010. Only time will tell.
“Speaking of drinking heavily, F. Scott Fitzgerald. That’s the author we talked about last night. Tonight we will be talking about the biggest initials in twentieth century literature, J.D. Salinger, a man so reclusive, his first two names are still secret.”
cOlbert’s Book Club - Better Know a Salinger
- Tonight, J.D. Salinger. The writin’ J.D.!
- On Salinger’s flunking out of H.S.: “Apparently, he had not read the sophomore book assignment, mainly because he hadn’t written it yet.”
- On Salinger’s calling his German ex-wife “Saliva”: …which will go down in history as the kindest possible way to insult a Nazi.
“”Catcher” [has sold] over 65 million copies worldwide. To put that in perspective, “The Joy of Sex” sold only 10 million copies worldwide, and “The Catcher in the Rye” has no sex, and even less joy.”
“Salinger wrote things without immediately sharing them with the world, and I will give you a moment to tweet how strange that is. “
- I love J.D. Salinger’s short stories about the brilliant, emotionally fragile Glass family. There is just something about the self-absorbed anxieties of emotionally stunted white people that really speaks to me.
- The estate of J.D. Salinger is rumored to be publishing five new books in the upcoming years, the books are said to include a book on eastern mysticism, a collection of glass family stories, and a prequel to his most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye: The Phantom Menace. Though I am not entirely sure the world is ready for Jar-Jar Caulfield.
“”Yousa a g*damn phony!”
“I would like to apologize to the estate of J.D, Salinger, his publishers at Little Brown and Company, and, of course, Patrick Stewart, whose performance as Phoebe will now never be seen. “
Who wouldn’t love this illustrated copy of “The Colbert in the Rye”? Always knew he was the Catcher.
Interview - Tobias Wolff
- Stephen: Did [Catcher] influence your work, because your work, This Boy’s Life, is a coming of age story where you start off as yourself, and end up as Leornardo DiCaprio.
- Tobias: I would say to begin with that I wish it [Catcher wasn’t] taught to kids -
- Stephen: Amen.
- Tobias: Part of the experience of finding that novel for myself was that I felt like I was being subversive when I was reading it, because here is a book calling the adult world, as I saw it then, a nest of hypocrisy, and phoniness, and that is something you want to discover on your own. You don’t want your English teacher to be introducing you to the hypocrisy of adults.
- Stephen: (on the Catcher’s “spicy” themes) Do we need to be reinforcing our kid’s bad behavior as teenagers with the idea that they could be a character in a great novel? “Dad, I wasn’t disobeying you, I was exploring modes of alienation.”
- Tobias: Well, I would rather they be introduced to that book rather than be trained in pompousness, pretentiousness, bogus spirituality, such as what you find in the Glass Stories.
- Stephen: Now wait a second. The Glass Family stories … those are Salinger’s finest works. Those are his greatest works. You will admit that, or you will pay a price. […] What do you have against the Glass family
- Tobias: Do you like to read sermons all day?
- Stephen: I give them.
- Tobias: Oddly, enough that is the [preacherly] tone he took on when he was writing these Glass Family stories.
- Stephen: Buddy Glass, who writes all of these stories … he says essentially that I know that I am writing imperfect stories, and I will get lost in my own locutions, and I will use “God” in such a way that is not a 3-letter expletive, and that people will look at what I do awry, and think of me as sermonizing. He knows what he is doing but it’s a confession; you’re seeing Salinger as he really is there. You don’t like Salinger - how dare you like his book.
Tobias Wolff attempts to flee at the end of the interview….Stephen never lets them though, right? Stephen had just refuted Wolff’s interpretation of The Glass Family stories.
Interview - Shane Salerno
- Stephen: Why did you throw yourself into the life of Salinger? Why is he your white whale?
- Shane: That’s a good way to put it. His life was so extraordinary. When I found out that J.D. Salinger lost the love of his life to Charlie Chaplain. […] [Una O’Neill] imprinted on Salinger a period of his life that he tried to repeat forever.
- Stephen: Here’s my beef with you. Why let me know these things about Salinger? He was someone who guarded his privacy, and I respected that privacy by not intruding, because what if I found out things about him that creep me out. I am worried if I learn things about Salinger that I don’t like, I won’t like his books anymore. Isn’t that the danger? (In response, Salerno mentions that since his documentary has been released, Catcher has jumped to #7 on Amazon.)
- Stephen: Why do you still think we are talking about a guy who hasn’t really written anything that anybody thought was any good sine the 1950s?
- Shane: Salinger was a one-of-a-kind, singular voice, and the idea that he has worked every day for 45 years, and put that work in a vault to be released starting in 2015. […] I think it’s going to be incredible to see him complete The Glass Family, to see an artist complete something that he’s been working on for 40 years. We have only seen half the painting.
- Stephen: Why do you think he didn’t let us see the stuff?
- Shane: His religion says that you don’t do anything that feeds your ego.
- Stephen:(horrified) That sucks! I mean, you’ve worked in Hollywood, so maybe you don’t know what feeding an ego is like. But do you know how delicious it is to feed your ego?
- Shane: But I think that’s why. He really felt that the work itself was the reward, and after he had passed away a few years later, the work would start to be released, so he is not there for the ego gratification of seeing it published. That is just a pure artist delivering his work to an audience.
- Stephen: Why do you think that Seymour shoots himself?
- Shane: Because of the trauma of WW II. Salinger knew that extraordinarily well. Salinger walked into a concentration camp and never walked out. For the rest of his life he was living with PTSD and I think [the film] shows in an unprecedented fashion how damaged he was. If J.D. Salinger hadn’t gone to WW II, we wouldn’t have this work.
- Stephen: So maybe we owe Hitler just a little apology.
- Shane: Wow. Wow.
- Stephen: Your words. Not mine.