Re: Re: Mr. Antolini

Brendan McKennedy (the.tourist@mailexcite.com)
Fri, 05 Dec 1997 23:16:02 -0700

I'm sorry, folks--but this post was so brilliant, I think it deserves to be posted
twice.
Brendan

>
>Thanks to everyone who has responded to my comment about possibly leaving
>the list. I appreciate your feedback and it has certainly given me food
>for thought. I wanted to clarify a couple of things. First of all, I  
>certainly don't object to people using literary criticism to discuss any
>author's work, including Salinger's, in any way. In fact, I welcome it,
>even if I do not always understand it because I know how exciting an
>acedemic discussion of something can be and how important it is to apply
>various theories in order to aid in the understanding of whatever is being
>studied. What I do object to, in fact find offensive, is having someone
>throw literary theory in my face in a condescending manner and basically
>invalidate what I have to say, my approach to literature (not to mention
>my favorite English professor) because it's supposedly all due to "Reader
>Response" theory or whatever other nonsense people conjure to make
>themselves feel intelligent. Especially when I am discussing something I
>love as much as do 'Catcher.' Whether or not anyone else thinks that
>behavior is offensive is immaterial to me. I'm just not sure that I want
>to discuss this subject with people who think it's okay to judge the value
>of other people's contributions. That's not what I signed up for and
>that's not anything I want to be a part of. I want to be part of a
>community were people can freely express their thoughts without fear that
>someone else is going to come along and ruin it. As Holden says "People
>are always ruining things for you" and frankly, this isn't something I
>want ruined. It's totally okay for everyone else to think that Antolini is
>intentionally left ambiguous, I don't happen to feel that way and i want
>to be able to say that, and if I feel particularly articulate that day,
>explain my reasons.  Maybe I've reacted too sensitively to this whole
>issue and will try not to in the future but I felt what I felt.
>
>Peggy
>
>



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