Re: what, exactly...?
June Kitzman (ki1634ju@uscolo.edu)
Mon, 07 Dec 1998 02:08:46 -0700 (MST)
Holden address those readers that "want to know the truth"
On Sun, 6 Dec 1998, J J R wrote:
> "Uninteresting" is a word so subjective it's virtually meaningless.
> "Irrelevant" may be better, but to use that word we'd have to justify it
> first from the text.
>
> I guess it's obvious to me that Holden is "deliberately" addressing
> someone. In a sense, ALL novels and ALL poems--ALL works, for that
> matter, address Someone. Directly or indirectly.
>
> Now, Holden is "deliberately" addressing someone. The next question to
> ask is, "Is it a specific 'someone' or a general 'someone'?" I've just
> finished reading Jonathan Carroll's Outside the Dog Museum--like Catcher,
> it's a first person account addressing the reader. But it's not
> addressing any particular reader that I can tell. And I've finished not
> too long ago John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. Another first person
> account telling a story to someone. But it isn't addressing a particular
> reader to me either.
>
> Holden's first person account is different. Holden seems to be
> addressing a particular reader that has known expectations. That's why
> the question is interesting to me. It doesn't really seem to fit the
> paradigm you describe at the end of your post like Irving's or Carroll's
> work does. It stands out from these two. Makes me want to sniff around
> :)
>
> Jim
>
> On Sat, 05 Dec 1998 18:02:10 -0500 Paul Janse <PJanse@compuserve.com>
> writes:
> >The question of who Holden is addressing seems to me very
> >uninteresting.
> >The fact that he *is* addressing *someone is*. To me it is just Holden
> >Caulfield's and Salinger's variant of the very old literary device:
> >"List=
> >en
> >to this, I am telling you a tale", which gives the story a special
> >kind o=
> >f
> >truthfullness, well, I don't know whether this is the right word, in
> >any
> >case it gives the story a special tone. Did anyone ever read Tolstoy's
> >'Kreutzer Sonate'? This story is told in a train by a man to his
> >accident=
> >al
> >fellow passenger. Same effect. The question who this other man is, is
> >beside the point.
> >
> >Paul J.
> >
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
> You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
> Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
> or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>