Posted on 01/28/2010 10:38:44 AM PST by Justaham
NEW YORK - J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.
Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.
"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
Agreed.
Completely.
Hundreds of more worthwhile books for high school kids to read. Thousands....
It’s about a ‘self absorbed, navel watching self conscious’ character. The book is critical of him.
You’re absolutely right and my screen name should be all that you need to know of my love for HP. :) Catcher wasn’t assigned reading for our school, maybe that’s why I’m so fond of it because I found it on my own. It was the first book I ever read that had curse words in it and being in 8th grade I guess I felt that “Man, this must be a book the librarian doesn’t realize what’s in it!” LOL
>>state of rebellion against the prevailing wisdom
Not much of one, unless you count smoking and drinking along the railroad tracks as some such rebellion.
I just found it boring at age 16. Tried another go in my 20’s but could barely start it. Different tastes, I suppose.
CS Forester’s The Gun is not a novel specifically for young people.
Rather more complex that the straightforwardness of the Hornblower series, it’s themes would make an adolescent consider that there is more to the world than just his immediate mood.
IMO, Salinger encourages the worst kind of thinking that a teenager should be encouraged to indulge in.
It doesn’t encourage that kind of thinking. The character is on the verge of outgrowing it at the end.
OK, I’ll give you that, but to me the entire book was a rumination and an indulgence in that type of thinking.
Well, by the end, I didn’t care what the heck happened to him :>
It’s a Bildungsroman...akin to Huck Finn realizing that Jim is a human being worthy of respect at the end of his story.
16 is too old to read Catcher, and unless you’re an english major, at 20 it would seem trite. I believe it was on our reading lists in the middle of the middle school years, 12 or 13 years old.
For me, that was 1970.
I don’t see Salinger as encouraging the behavior, more of a ‘I report, you decide’ kind of thing. Holden is not painted in too positive a light by Salinger.
Now, the head of the English Department allowed my paper on a hundred Dylan songs and would later lament the mass of grads had gone to three-bedroom coffins.
No doubt grumbling over doing other than their best lights beckoned.
I saw no value in it.
I had already read HMS Ulysses by 13-14 and somehow avoided Salinger til 15, or maybe 16.
After the thriller writing of Alistair MacLean, Salinger’s non plot narrative didn’t appeal to me.
Holden is the protagonist and the object of our sympathy.
As you say about Salinger, he reported and I decided. :>>
Chuckling. Thankfully neither your personal opinions nor mine have yet been outlawed.
I also read tons of books, read numerous magazines and many newspapers, and I’ve been wondering about switching over to a digital reader, like the Kindle or the new iPad, (although I hate the fact that it won’t allow Flash nor will it allow multi-tasking) and I was wondering if you have any experience reading books in digital format.
Right now I have several bookcases with two layers of books on each shelf and I have many boxes of books and magazines in my shed, how cool it would be to put some of those in a digital advice, maybe?!
Ed
Ah, Blyton.
Un-PC now here in Britain of course. Funny that she was not known in the US, as she was ans still is a household name here.
HMS Ulysses, great book. I can recommend other great British WW2/WW1 literature if you havent read much (which you probably have lol).
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1965/06/19/1965_06_19_032_TNY_CARDS_000276654
"ABSTRACT: Seymour Glass, age 7, writes a letter to his parents, his sister Beatrice (Boo Boo) & his twin brothers Walter and Waker. He is at a children's camp with his brother Buddy, who is 5. At this time, their mother is 28 and she and their father are touring as a stage team. This letter is on an adult level. Seymour advises his parents, expresses views on God, people and writers. He & Buddy have been reading adult literature for some time. He sends along a list of books he'd like to have sent from the public library, along with his estimate of each of the writers. He foretells the future: Buddy will be a writer working from a room that looks like the one he always dreamed about; he, Seymour will live to the age of 30."
Hi Ed, Unfortunately I don't. I haven't made the transition yet though I am intrigued to try it. Good Lord, as much as I spend on books per year I'm sure I could afford several. But I'm curious as to if I'd like it or if I'd remain a "purist" for the books themsleves. And like you, I'm approaching that level of lack of storage!
I hated the book, but thought it was because I’m a girrrrlllll. It sold so many copies because it was required reading, not because it was all that and a bag of chips. The English teachers who assigned it back in the 60s and 70s were quite happy to watch the “awakening” of the little rebels against family and society....the rest is history. I read that ol’ JD’s daughter didn’t think much of daddy at all - ain’t it just the way. Beloved by the anonymous masses and hated by one’s own family. Yuck.
Thanks anyway, HP.
Maybe some years hence we’ll be reading on digital readers that store all our reading materials!
See ya’,
Ed
Seymour Glass, RIP
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