Re: I luv Holden
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Wed, 01 Jul 1998 22:17:19 -0400
e w/ love and squalor wrote:
> months ago, at the ripe age of 19. He kept repeating, with increasing
> degrees of frustration, "Salinger made SO much fun of Holden. I don't
> think the reader was meant to really take Holden seriously at all. Look
> at how much of a fool he's made out to be. Salinger doesn't have a very
> high opinion of him at all."
I agree with the idea, but it sounds like your friend was thinking of
the whole of Holden as ridiculous--the personality quirks that most
readers find most attractive...the core of the book's humor and the core
of its "me vs. them" sincerity.
I would guess that Salinger's opinion of his character is something
close to Antolini's opinion. Antolini (the only Glass character in the
story) seems to fill a space otherwise left vacant in the book--the
space of successful integration of "me" and "them." Of loving the fat
lady.
In all probability--if we must conjecture about these sorts of
things--Salinger makes fun of Holden as you might make fun of yourself
in a story loosely based on the experiences of your youth. As you might
make fun of yourself as a child in home videos.
--
Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu