Re: BANANAFISH digest 10


Subject: Re: BANANAFISH digest 10
Matthew_Stevenson@baylor.edu
Date: Sun Jun 15 1997 - 20:16:25 GMT


>I write this as a teenager (adulthood is fast approaching, and I don't
>like it):

i completely understand--i shall pass most unwillingly from the hallowed life as
a teen in less than three weeks and i hate the idea.

>The thing about Catcher is, it's great to know you're not the only
>person ever to feel completely like shit, but at the end, what happens
>to Holden? He compromises, he's gotta go back to school, back into the
>phony, crappy, ugly world.
>
>It doesn't make you feel 'Yes, I can change things! Life CAN be great.'
>It just makes you feel that no matter how hard to try to reject it,
>you're still a part of humanity, you start 'missing' people. It's not
>going to go away, or get any better.

the thing i like about catcher is that it doesn't once delude the reader with a
romanticized view of the world as this peachy idealized non-phony place. it
hits you over the head with the phoniness. but the other thing it does is to
show the reader that not every person accepts it. it shows the side of humanity
struggling against the entropy of phoniness. it does make you feel like your
part of humanity is non-negotiable, but it lets you know that humanity's at the
very least not entirely bad.

>
>And as for suicide, if you're going to kill yourself, you're going to
>kill yourself. You're not going to harbour a wish to survive because of
>a fictional character from a book set in the fifties (?) who, in the
>end, is STILL getting harrassed about whether or not he's going to apply
>himself at school.

people choose to kill themselves or not kill themselves for many reasons, and i
think fictional works play a role in the decision-making processes quite often.

>
>But that's just my two cents, just little me, no college degree, no
>thesis, just MTV and a bottle of coke...

ditto but i don't drink coke.--matt
>
>:helena
>--
>{bottles, car parts and cutlery}
>http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/4801/
>
>



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