Is Salinger from the Next Generation?

Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Mon, 13 Jul 1998 15:07:36 -0400 

JDHadden@aol.com wrote:
 

> My point is that there is little in Salinger's works (most of them, anyway)
> that date them to a particular time period, as opposed to Fitzgerald's careful
> descriptions of the Jazz age (which is one of the most important traits in his
> works).  

Take a few steps back and consider what *does* date (or otherwise limit
the universality of) _Catcher_.    

> Isn't one reason why TCIR is so beloved by us is that readers from
> any generation can feel the same as Holden?  

English-speaking readers from relatively privileged social backrounds
who are competently familiar with American slang of the past 50 years
can feel the same as Holden.  People from other backrounds generally
need translation help or footnotes to achieve the spiritual union you
have enjoyed.    

> I personally read Kerouac and Fitzgerald as
> an observer, while with Salinger the connection is much more personal.
 
As you note with "I personally" above, the experience you have had with
Salinger is yours, personally.    

> You can't honestly expect
> teenagers today to identify with Gatzby, from the post-WWI prohibition Jazz
> age the way they do with Holden.

No, you cannot.  Do you suppose that teenagers from this day forward
will generally identify with and celebrate Holden as many of us have? 
When, in the appendix to his book on the canon, Harold Bloom neatly
trimmed Salinger's contribution to literary greatness down to _Catcher_,
I prepared a lengthy letter, written in Buddy-speak, that detailed
Bloom's shortcomings as a reader and as the editor of the Salinger entry
in the _Modern Critical Views_ series.  About a year before that, I
severed all academic ties with my senior thesis advisor after she
neglected to enter into convulsions of joy and awe when I announced I
would be writing on Salinger.  I wondered how those people could even
make it to work with so many screws loose.  It seems that somehwere
along the line, though, I joined them.  Now, try not to ride too roughly
down the wide and bumpy road of life yourself, lest you jar some of your
own screws loose.        


-- 
Matt Kozusko    mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu