Re: The Great Salinger May Not Be Universal
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:45:34 +1000
> To call anything "universal" is dangerous. There are components of
> Salinger's work that are wide-reaching (they transcend the time and place
> of composing), but for the most part, Salinger is not as universal as we
> might hope. Lesley's post of today is well taken.
Oh, I don't know ... at a very facile level you could judge universality as
the number of places in the world in which a book has been translated and
enjoyed, and I know TCIR fills that criteria quite well. And I don't think
it's wholly relevant to call it the howl of a young anglo saxon male from
an industrialised capitalist country either - because if anyone remembers,
not that long ago I posted some of my research pertaining to the fact that
I believe Holden's story was inspired at least in part by that of Gautama
Buddha, whose place in time and space could not be more different to
Holden's.
But also, it is possible to talk about degrees of universality, and at
least earmark those texts that are more `universal' (that's probably not
the best word) than
others - e.g. you could say TCIR is a more universal book than say, Dr
Zivago, because the former employs more themes that everyone can empathise
with and transcends its status as merely a book of its time. And I accept
that the cult of the teenager only really began in the 1950's but I think
the wider theme of TCIR is something which is a component of Holden's
dilemma - the passage of time. There is *nobody* who can't empathise with
that. Have a read of the end of chapter 16 and you'll see what I mean. The
best argument I think is the fact that we're all reading a book that was
published the year after my parents were born and none of us are showing
any signs of getting sick of it or finding it irrelevant. There's no doubt
it's one of the great 20th Century novels, but of course none of us can
judge whether or not this will extend to the 21st Century.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE
www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
THE INVERTED FOREST
www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest