Subject: Re: An American Manifesto [was RE: Tr: Ghost World]
From: Suzanne Morine (suzannem@dimensional.com)
Date: Mon Aug 06 2001 - 23:30:19 GMT
At 10:26 AM 8/6/2001 -0700, Cecilia Baader wrote:
>ObSal: I finally had the opportunity to listen to Will's and Chris's
>fine interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation. (I love that Juan
>Williams.) One of the callers had a point that I thought Will handled
>exceptionally well, that low-income, inner city teens, this same group
>that I've been discussing above, cannot relate to Holden's viewpoint,
>simply because of his economic status. Will disagreed; how about the
>rest of you?
I liked the comment, that I think Pam S. made, that when you read a book,
you open yourself up to its message, its point of view. You don't decide
ahead of time that the book is too old or the protagonist is too well off,
etc. for the book to be any good. I thought that was a good explanation for
the contrast between Chris' and Will's quantity of low-income teens who
really loved the book -- enough to write a letter to Salinger -- and the
callers who wrote Holden off. It was also revealing that the callers were
focusing on Holden's economic status.
Yet also, it recently occurred to me that someone paging through the book,
perhaps looking for a reason to not read it or a reason to dislike it,
might land on a quote that sounds whiny or privileged or tedious and they
don't read it or read it with a prejudice. Well, maybe anyone skipping
ahead before they've even started a book is already revealing that they
aren't going to open themselves up to a book. If I pick up a fiction book
I've never read and read something from the middle of it, it just seems
stupid. Like Scottie's ridiculous adults running after a ball, thinking it
matters, it's just a fiction book at that point, nothing to love or invest
time in. I know if I pick it up and read it cover to cover, I might get
involved, where if I put it down, I don't have to spend any more time on
it, it's still safe to forget it, even to blow it off as possibly stupid.
That said, it occurred to me that the difference between seeing a concise
quote with some Holdenisms removed or seeing it more in its original state,
to someone who hadn't yet warmed to Holden, Holden could seem less likable
in the longer quote. Just an example, compare these two quotes:
"I'm always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I
met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though."
"Then she left. The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met
each other. Which always kills me. I'm always saying 'Glad to've met you'
to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have
to say that stuff, though."
Suzanne
"Understanding the complaints of people with insight is not easy and it's
simpler to call it whining." Will Hochman
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