Re: ...and he stoppeth one of three...
Pasha Paterson (gpaterso@richmond.edu)
Mon, 07 Dec 1998 00:27:51 -0500
I apologize for the tardiness of this reply, it being fifteen minutes into
Monday morning here in Richmond, VA, but I just had to reply to this one.
Scottie, I totally agree that someone far removed from Holden would feel
constantly unsure of how to deal with this sixteen-year-old dropout if he
was obviously holed up in a loony bin. However, when I read it, I was also
approaching sixteen myself, and I DID read the frame narrative as a
recitation to a therapist. I did not, however, feel 'off the hook' or
distanced from Holden at all. Far from it --- paranoid American youth that
I was, I found his predicament to be only an additional reason to sympathize
with him. At the time I felt that if anyone tried any harder to stress me
out than they already were, I would end up snapping, dropping out of school
and heading for the hills just as Holden wanted to. His story instilled not
a little fear in my young heart that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't all work
out, that sometimes even when the bad guys win they scored too much to
forget it. Part of that paranoia I shared with Holden is still with me to
this day; whether it's from _Catcher_ or the fact that I watch "X-Files"
could easily start a debate that would fill another mailing list. But I
believe that Holden's being stuck in a loony bin would only add to a
similarly aged reader's sympathetic back-guarding, and enhance the sense
of dejection and senselessness that pervades Holden's actions for much of
the novel.
But that's just me. Is the truth out there? :)
[ Pasha ]
At 19:00 12/04/98 +0000, Scottie Bowman wrote:
> Mattis,
>
> I guess in this instance I understood Salinger to be aiming at the kind
> of immediacy which comes from the unapologetic, non-explanatory
> 'button-holing' of those opening sentences. If he had given clear
>indications
> that Holden was speaking from the lunatic asylum or even simply talking
> to a therapist it would have been all too easy for the reader to keep
>his
> distance, to get 'off the hook', to maintain an amused or coolly
>sympathetic
> attitude in which his hero would have been rather too easily forgotten.
>
> I'm not sure if this is incompatible with my enthusiasm for the primacy
> of the writer's intention. I suppose I still think what the author is
>trying
> to effect is the important thing. When the transmission does not take
> place, or is scrambled, the fault lies either in his own lack of skill
>or in
> the stupidity of the reader. But he should not expect the reader to do
> the work for him & make a lovely silk purse out of his discarded sow's
> ear.
>
> Scottie B.
________________________________________________________
G.H.G.A.Paterson (804)662-3737 gpaterso@richmond.edu
________________________________________________________