what, exactly...?

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Fri, 04 Dec 1998 15:25:48 +0000

    I don't doubt various arguments can be brought forward to support
    or demolish the idea of Holden addressing a therapist.  But does
    no one share my feeling of futility that the question should be even
    considered ?  That seductive, confiding, 'come here & listen to this...'
    tone of voice seems to me to render finicky & over-literal the attempt
    to place Holden in any precise setting.  I doesn't greatly engage me
    whether he's talking to an analyst, a friend in the bar, or even his own
    reflection in the mirror.  The magic is all in that droll, embittered,
    idealistic voice.  And it can be all too quickly steamrollered by
Jesuitical
    dissection.

    While accepting that serious writing deserves serious reading, it's this
    very finickiness - this clever citing of evidence first one way then the
other -
    that I personally find so irritating in the whole attitude of the
professional scholar.

    Scottie B.