Posted on 07/14/2026 10:39:13 AM PDT by Borges
On July 16, “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, will turn 75. Commemorating such a nice big number would surely strike its adolescent hero, Holden Caulfield, as the absolute nadir of “corny,” but maybe we could use a little corn, as the data centers invade our farmland.
Pour out a Scotch and soda — make that a malted milk — for this spry codger of a novel that’s stayed on the dance floor long past when might be expected, leaping over book bans from the right and dodging cancellation from the left. “Catcher” has somehow inspired artists as disparate as John Guare and Guns N’ Roses, its denunciation of phoniness presaging the social-media demand for “authenticity.”
Though set mostly in the sophisticated precincts of New York City where Salinger was raised but did not remain, “Catcher” might be the purest of the Great American Novels. (Partly because it has never been made into a movie, though everyone from Billy Wilder to Steven Spielberg tried to secure the rights.)
It’s also one of the dirtiest: ruffling parents and school boards with its fingernail clippings, shaving stubble, blood, flatulence, drunkenness, voyeurism, vulgarity, prostitution, profligacy and slang. Oh so much delectable lost slang.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
75 doesn’t seem that old to me, if you want to know the truth.
Why does my intuition tell me this book is an important part of Cultural Marxism?
The only exceptions to this rule are explicitly works of satire or parables, e.g. Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, etc.
That’s silly. If you read Salinger’s other work, it’s about characters seeking spiritual sustenance. There is nothing Marxist about it.
I know this may not be someone else’s idea of horrible but I was young and that birth of the pony in The Red Pony disgusted me and other parts in the book.
Maybe Steinbeck is okay for adults but I still wouldn’t read it.
He’s a kid. And he’s mentally ill.
Salinger clearly didn’t like the character. Read his short stories. He was a very precise stylist.
Salinger wrote about characters seeking cultural sustenance. There’s nothing Marxist about him.
Maybe I’m wrong about it.
But if it’s not part of Cultural Marxism, then why have all the Cultural Marxists always pushed this book so hard?
“When the main character is an uninteresting (to me), boring, brainless, mentally weak, contemptible little slug ...”
So, a Democrat.
Mark Chapman, John Lennon’s killer, was inspired by Catcher in the Rye. The clown who tried to assassinate George Wallace (name eludes me) left behind a diary that reads scarily like Catcher as well.
That said, there is some good writing tucked into it, but too much moral emptiness.
Red Pony was specifically crafted to make White Christian women fearful of giving birth.
PPL need to realize when the Bolsheviks are targeting them.
I thoroughly disliked the book and see no reason to explore the author’s other works.
Nevertheless, I respect the differing tastes and views of those who, for whatever reason, like it or see value in it.
A young man’s search for identity and purpose leads to mistakes.
These mistakes are, from a Christian perspective, classic sin.
The young man, Holden, never turns to God for answers.
Instead, the theme of the book is consistent with what the satanists try to teach us.
Pure, Grade A crap.
That’s another one we had to read. It must have been a conspiracy!..........
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
“The narrative follows Smith, a Nottingham teenager sent to Ruxton Towers Borstal for burglary, who uses long-distance running as both a physical escape and a means of psychological resistance against authority. The story culminates in a cross-country race where Smith deliberately throws the competition to deny the institution’s governor the glory, symbolizing a defiant stand against a class-divided society”
Not my cup of tea either.
It will be in the Public Domain in 2046. By then we should be seeing various knock-offs, both in print and in whatever passes for cinema by then.
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