Coming Through the Rye

via NYTimes, Artsbeat:

June 16, 2009, 9:04 am

Author Responds to Salinger Lawsuit

By Dave Itzkoff

Associated Press J.D. Salinger, now 90 years old, is suing to stop the publication of “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.”

Updated | 9:20 a.m. An author who is being sued for a coming novel that J.D. Salinger says is “a rip-off pure and simple” of “The Catcher in the Rye” will argue that his book is a legally protected literary commentary on Mr. Salinger’s original novel.

According to a legal brief provided by his lawyers, Fredrik Colting, the author of the book “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,” says that his novel is not a sequel to “Catcher in the Rye,” but rather “a complex and undeniably transformative exposition about one of our nation’s most famous authors, J.D. Salinger, and his best known creation, Holden Caulfield.”

The book “explores the famously reclusive Salinger’s efforts to control both his own persona and the persona of the character he created,” according to the brief. “It also scrutinizes and criticizes the iconic stature of Salinger and his creation by comparing the precocious and self-satisfied 16-year-old Holden with a 76-year-old version of himself fraught with indecision and insecurity.”

Earlier this month, Mr. Salinger, 90, filed suit against Mr. Colting, a Swedish author who wrote “60 Years Later” under the pseudonym John David California. The book, published in Britain and scheduled for release in the United States, centers on a 76-year-old character called Mr. C, who wanders the streets of New York after he escapes his nursing home, in a manner similar to Holden Caulfield’s escape from an elite prep school. Opening arguments in the case are scheduled to begin Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

In their brief, Frankfurt Kurnit, the lawyers for Mr. Colting, say that his book is a literary commentary on “Catcher in the Rye,” Mr. Salinger and his Holden Caulfield character, and is a parody protected by fair use laws. They say Mr. Colting’s book “imagines the interaction between two narrator/protagonists: ‘Mr. Salinger,’ a bitter and angry reclusive author, and Mr. C, the fictional character he has created.”

In a written declaration filed with the brief, Mr. Colting writes, “I am not a pirate.” He adds that he did not write “60 Years Later” as a “cheap rip-off of one of the most famous works of modern fiction” but rather as “a critical exploration of such themes as the relationship between J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author, and Holden Caulfield, his brash and ageless fictional creation.”

Mr. Colting also writes in his declaration that Mr. Salinger has “exercised iron-clad control over his intellectual property, refusing to allow others to adapt any of his characters or stories in other media.”

He says that several scenes in “60 Years Later” comment on the uneasy relationship between his imagined version of Mr. Salinger and the Holden Caulfield character: “In order to regain control over his own life, which is drawing to a close, ‘Mr. Salinger’ tries repeatedly to kill off Mr. C by various means: a runaway truck; falling construction debris; a lunatic woman with a knife; suicide by drowning and suicide by pills.”

Mr. Colting acknowledges that three original characters from “Catcher in the Rye” appear in his novel: Mr. C, his sister Phoebe and Stradlater, Holden Caulfield’s prep school roommate. He also provides a list of more than two dozen original characters he has created for his novel, including Mary, Mr. C’s deceased wife, and Daniel, his son.

The legal filing also included a written declaration from Aaron Silverman, the owner of SCB Distributors, a California-based company that planned to release “60 Years Later” in the United States. In his declaration, Mr. Silverman included a mock-up of the book’s cover, which features a rough sketch of the Manhattan skyline, with disclaimers that read “A Fictional Examination of the Relationship Between J.D. Salinger and His Most Famous Character” and “This critical literary speculation has not been approved, licensed or endorsed by J.D. Salinger.”

In additional written declarations, Martha Woodmansee, a professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, writes that Mr. Colting’s novel is a work of “meta-commentary” and “is thus a complex work, more complex than” Mr. Salinger’s novel. Sara Nelson, the former editor of Publishers Weekly, writes that a US release of “Sixty Years Later” would not adversely affect sales of “Catcher in the Rye.” “Anticipated sales of ‘60 Years,’ a critical analysis by a little-known author, pale in comparison to ‘Catcher’’s success,” Ms. Nelson said in her declaration.