Re: Quiet list? there's always
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Thu, 02 Jul 1998 09:59:11 +1000
> Just a suggestion, I know we don't know much about Salinger's personal
life,
> but I believe I have read he has been hospitalized for psychological
reasons.
Yes, he himself had a nervous breakdown after the war - as far as I can see
his experiences were pretty much the same as those of Sergeant X in`To Esme
..'
>the ending of TCitR, if you would consider it a
> breakdown, was definitely psychological. But that's just my opinion, and
I
> would be even amazed if anyone were to agree.
As far as the whole breakdown thing goes - I think it's pretty telling that
like the Franny pregnancy thing, it didn't even enter into my mind that
Holden had had a breakdown until I read it in books of Salinger criticism
and theory. I got the impression instead that we the reader were like
Holden's `therapist' - he's telling his story to *us* and now, even 40
years later we're still trying to give him a diagnosis. With parents as
skittish as his I think they'd be the first to ship him off to some
holistic quack with his pigskin suitcases just because he was a little
different.
Has anyone considered that Holden might be in a reformatory?
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE
www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442