Re: greetings!
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 15:48:15 +1000
> i am interested in the external
> forces which shaped salinger's work <ie his participation in four of the
> bloodiest campaings during world war two and the altering of his prose
> by certain literary magazines in order to make them more cost effective>
I was just thinking today after I studied some wartime poetry about how
much we forget that `The Catcher in the Rye' is very much a postwar book.
If you look at a lot of that poetry - be it WWI or WWII - the message is
literally `play the game and you can't lose' (there's one particular one
whose name escapes me which compares war with a game of cricket) - which is
exactly what Holden is rejecting. The character of DB also seems to embody
the loss of innocence inherent in war, and one who has been taught through
his participation in the war how to `play the game' - i.e. go to Hollywood
and make money rather than retain his integrity.
Good luck with your research and remember it's not summer everywhere (here
the sun's shining now but it was torrential rain and half the state flooded
a couple of days ago (: )
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE
www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
THE INVERTED FOREST
www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest