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J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly
Washington Post ^
| October 19, 2004
| JONATHAN YARDLEY
Posted on 10/23/2004 6:55:30 AM PDT by jalisco555
click here to read article
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Like most high school students I had these books inflicted on me and I've yet to forgive my teachers.
To: jalisco555
They pushed these books on us in high school also.
Thank goodness for the internet and Sparknotes.
2
posted on
10/23/2004 6:58:36 AM PDT
by
TBarnett34
(Can I get an UNNNGH?!)
To: jalisco555
I've never understood why English teachers choose
Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work. I've always liked
For Whom the Bell Tolls better, and while it is longer, it is less obscure.
As for Salinger, I suspect his opinion of himself is higher than merited by a single work, regardless of how relevant it was to an angst-ridden generation in 1951. Let's just say he falls into the category of What Have You Done Lately?
3
posted on
10/23/2004 7:05:54 AM PDT
by
IronJack
(R)
To: jalisco555
Indeed a case can be made that "The Catcher in the Rye" created adolescence as we now know it, a condition that barely existed until Salinger defined it. He established whining rebellion as essential to adolescence and it has remained such ever since. It was a short leap indeed from "The Catcher in the Rye" to "The Blackboard Jungle" to "Rebel Without a Cause" to Valley Girls to the multibillion-dollar industry that adolescent angst is today.
4
posted on
10/23/2004 7:06:23 AM PDT
by
atomicpossum
(If there are two Americas, John Edwards isn't qualified to lead either of them.)
To: jalisco555
You have to be just the right age when you read Catcher. As for Old Man...it really was Hemingway at his worst. The only thing it has going for it is the Hemingway "brand," its relatively short length, and easy-to-read Hemingway vocabulary.
5
posted on
10/23/2004 7:06:52 AM PDT
by
durasell
(Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
To: IronJack
I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work.
US education is a leftist monolith? Whatever The Party says they must teach, they must teach?
6
posted on
10/23/2004 7:07:51 AM PDT
by
samtheman
(www.swiftvets.com)
To: jalisco555
I think this question is the most significant:
Why is Holden Caulfield nearly universally seen as "a symbol of purity and sensitivity" (as "The Oxford Companion to American Literature" puts it) when he's merely self-regarding and callow?
What were the roots of the shallow rebellion of the '60s, the years that warped our culture and continue to plague us? Some critics have argued that the most pernicious ideas of that era were planted still earlier, by the self-styled rebels of the Beat Generation. Salinger, a great hero to the boys of my era, was arguably the most influential of those writers.
7
posted on
10/23/2004 7:09:10 AM PDT
by
madprof98
To: jalisco555
Indeed a case can be made that "The Catcher in the Rye" created adolescence as we now know it, a condition that barely existed until Salinger defined it. To my way of thinking, the dream of adolescence is, and always has been, to enjoy all the adult pleasures without any of the adult responsibilities.
8
posted on
10/23/2004 7:10:13 AM PDT
by
Mr Ramsbotham
("Ich glaube, du hast in die hosen geschissen!")
To: jalisco555
I didn't have to read it in highschool but made the mistake of reading it 4-5 years ago.
9
posted on
10/23/2004 7:11:59 AM PDT
by
elli1
To: madprof98
The Beat Generation were unashamedly pro-American. They fancied themselves the offspring of Whitman and celebrate the American landscape.
The sixties saw the simultaneous mass marketing of the "hep cat" and perceived disallusionment with the status quo.
10
posted on
10/23/2004 7:13:43 AM PDT
by
durasell
(Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
To: jalisco555
I never read "catcher in the Rye" probably because as a girl from a working class family I just couldn't feel sorry for a rich kid slobbering over himself in a rich boarding school. I mean, get a break. I had to work part time and study hard. Who had time for feeling sorry for oneself?
BTW: Wasn't Catcher in the Rye the book in Conspiracy theory, i.e. that was the clue you had been programed by the evil CIA or whatever?
11
posted on
10/23/2004 7:14:28 AM PDT
by
LadyDoc
(liberals only love politically correct poor people)
To: jalisco555
hated both those books, but especially catcher.
12
posted on
10/23/2004 7:14:41 AM PDT
by
altura
(Kerry & Edwards make me long for the old Clinton-Gore days.)
To: altura
Try reading Stop Time. Superior to Catch in theme and writing, but never really got a fair shot. And, it can be read and enjoyed at any age.
13
posted on
10/23/2004 7:15:54 AM PDT
by
durasell
(Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
To: altura
I cite catcher as The Worst book I have ever read.
14
posted on
10/23/2004 7:16:50 AM PDT
by
elli1
To: durasell
"You have to be just the right age when you read Catcher."
I agree. I was in the teen age angst period when I was forced read it. I have a sister who was Phoebe's age at the time and I adored her the way Holden adored Phoebe. Holden became my hero.
I was so impressed, that I ran out and bought "Raise High the Roofbeam". What a piece of crap.
Another book that must be read at precisely the right time is "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. Great reading for one right out of college or smack in the middle of a midlife crisis.
To: jalisco555
I read Franny & Zooey, liked it much more than Catcher. Sallinger is a total a-hole, however.
16
posted on
10/23/2004 7:18:55 AM PDT
by
zook
To: IronJack
I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work. I've always liked For Whom the Bell Tolls better, and while it is longer, it is less obscure. I love talking about Hemingway. Ever since he got hung with the PC "misogynist" label, all his work seems to have been denigrated.
You're right, The Old Man and the Sea was completely different from all of his other works, written at the end of his life when his health was failing.
His entire writing ethic was based on _TRUTH_. The way you started a novel was to write a true sentence, and keep writing them until your novel was complete. His stories took place in the real world, amid real political and physical circumstances. Nothing made up, everything could really happen just the way he wrote it. Same with his dialog, and he was one of the best at dialog, as far as I am concerned.
The Old Man and the Sea, however, was not based on _TRUTH_, it was based on emotion. The constellations the old man sees while battling the fish and taking it home would not have been visible during the time of year the story takes place. All kinds of other things, too, but it's been a while since I read a critique. The point is, as you say, TOMATS is not representative of Hemingway's work.
It was still a nice story, but nothing like my favorite, "The Sun Also Rises."
Now that's a novel. They don't make'em like that anymore.
17
posted on
10/23/2004 7:19:30 AM PDT
by
E. Pluribus Unum
(I actually did vote for John Kerry, before I voted against him.)
To: elli1
I didn't have to read it in high school but made the mistake of reading it 4-5 years ago.And you made it all the way through? I salute your courage!
18
posted on
10/23/2004 7:20:17 AM PDT
by
jalisco555
("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats)
To: hal_walker
I read Catcher too late, at 18 or 19 (don't ask why) and shrugged it off. I agree with you on On The Road, but would add that Desolation Angels should be read a few years later.
19
posted on
10/23/2004 7:21:18 AM PDT
by
durasell
(Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
To: zook
I read Franny & Zooey, liked it much more than Catcher. Sallinger is a total a-hole, however.I never read that. I loved to read (still do, of course) and hated being told what to read when I was in school. The only book I was assigned that I actually enjoyed was "The Portrait of Dorian Gray". Now that was a novel.
20
posted on
10/23/2004 7:22:28 AM PDT
by
jalisco555
("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats)
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