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J.D. Salinger RIP

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by NoOneLikesUs, Jan 28, 2010.

  1. AD

    AD Active Member

    didn't like "catcher" at all when i read it in high school. reread it around 30, and loved it. could be just me, but the fact that i could relate more to it as an adult than a teen always made me think that holden sounded/felt like an adult sensibility channeled through a teen character -- rather than a true capturing of teen world. always thought s.e. hinton "got" teens better than salinger ever did.

    on the other hand, "for esme, with love and squalor" is marvelous. kids, he got. adolescents, not so much.
     
  2. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    I vaguely recall the novel after reading it in college in the early 80's and remember it being a striking novel; probably because of the sense of despondency emanating from someone who was so well off; (I was lower middle class, (rich people have problems?).

    Really enjoyed this editorial in today's local fishwrap:


    The real message of 'The Catcher in the Rye'

    Gene Kahane

    Tuesday, February 2, 2010


    What's especially sad - from this teacher's perspective - is that most folks seemed to have missed the point of the novel. Of course "Catcher" is about a troubled teen trying to work his way through adolescence in a world peopled by phonies. And, yes, the broader context of Holden Caulfield's story - the isolated, elite world of private schools in Cold War America - is important.

    But all of that is landscape, and none of it helps us to understand the story's central question: Why is he so messed up? And in the same way that nearly everyone around Holden reacts to the manifestations of his troubles - the smoking, drinking and swearing - and not the reason he behaves as he does, for years my students have fixated on his bad habits. And then I ask them: Why is this kid who has money, two parents, a successful older brother and a sister who adores him in such a bad place? Eventually we get to Allie, Holden's younger brother, who died of leukemia.

    Throughout the story, Holden tells us it's all about Allie, how the grief he had for his beloved sibling led to his broken hand, how he carries Allie's mitt for comfort and how he prays to Allie to save him. For me, that is the thread that links all of Holden's good and bad choices together, that is the layer we must reach to really understand this story, and that is what we adults can look to in order to really recognize the weight and beauty of Salinger's book.

    Holden is meaningful today because, even though he is white and privileged, like too many children he is hurting and invisible. His absent parents send him off to boarding school, his older brother is away pursuing his career, his teachers sort of try to help the poor guy, and his peers are too screwed up themselves to save their pal. Only his sister Phoebe understands Holden and, to borrow the cliche of my students, is "there for him." Holden tells her of his plan to run away, and, unlike everyone else, who advise him to consider the consequences of his actions (so teacher-like), Phoebe's response is to pack her suitcase and go with him.

    She knows what no one else knows - that to rescue someone, you don't hand them a pamphlet, you take their hand.

    In the movies "Precious" and "The Blind Side," we see perfect examples of how this works: Suffering young people are saved when those with Phoebe-like sensibilities intervene. It's the only way.

    So here's this teacher's take-home message: We all need to be Phoebe and look out for those around us, our friends and family and especially all the children everywhere. We all need to be that "catcher in the rye."

    I hope I got that right, Mr. Salinger.

    Gene Kahane is an English teacher at Encinal High in Alameda.

    Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/02/ED021BQTAG.DTL#ixzz0ePO5qm7J
     
  3. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    Anyone know if the local paper up in New Hampshire did anything? Seems like they would.
     
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I hear they may have. God save the Valley News.
     
  5. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Salinger accompanies Ray Kinsella back to Iowa in the book, "Shoeless Joe." Salinger probably would have sued had this been so in "Field of Dreams" so the black J.D. Salinger is invented in the character of Terry Mann.

    Great break for james Earl Jones, whose acting and voiceover career took a definite upswing after "FOD."
     
  6. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    From a Des Moines Register article last week about the connections between "Field of Dreams" and Salinger:

    http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100129/LIFE/1290352/-1/archive/Salinger-featured-in-Shoeless-Joe-
     
  7. AD

    AD Active Member

    that valley news story is, in its way, astounding. i think it changes the national narrative on the guy: instead of being a "recluse" or a "hermit", it turns out that salinger was a good neighbor, part of his community, a man who engaged the world on his terms -- not some basement-dwelling literary unibomber. he wrote, but chose not to publish. he had relations with people, but didn't do interviews or any of the time-sucking nonsense that most authors today consider necessary evils. am i misreading this?
     
  8. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Felt same way. Seems like a life well lived on his terms.
     
  9. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    I never got the sense that anyone thought he was a unibomber type, just that he stayed away from reporters and fans. His son, for instance, has talked about going to Red Sox games with him (as an adult, as well as a kid).
     
  10. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Anyone want to do a GIS for "J.D. Salinger" and "kiss cam?"
     
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