Subject: Brasil eats Bananafish
From: Capua (capua@sp.looknet.com.br)
Date: Tue Jun 10 1997 - 11:52:54 GMT
Oh, this is really weird, but I have to do this anyway. I am Nanda,
an eighteen-year-old girl from Sao Paulo, Brasil, whose lifen was never the
same after The Catcher in The Rye. I know this sounds more like a speech for
the AA, but, well, hasn't Salinger stablished an almost religious
institution with his writing? I can't help being a fan, and that is my
greatest sin to his eyes. Wow! I love those paradoxes.
When I was 13, after a depressive crises, I ended up at the
psychologist's office. After we talked for some months, he said that if
everything I was could be sumed up in a book, this book would be "O
Apanhador no Campo de Centeio". Well, the title in potuguese doesn't sound
very apealling, to tell you the truth. I wasn't into deep literature at that
time, and I thought it would be just another of those
mysthical-esoteric-fantastic stories. Besides, I was already tired of the
psycologist's talk. He didn't really know what he was doing, the type of guy
who's worse than his patients. To have an idea, the other book he
recommended was "The Lord of The Rings", by Tolkien, a book I couldn't care
less about. So I never read either of them, and never got back to his office.
Time went by, I grew up, got into Russian novels, phylosophy and
compulsive reading. I went for a high school exchange program in the USA,
and had the chance to meet a teacher that would later become a guru for me.
He was impressed by the quantity of books I had read, and was also impressed
that I had never read The Catcher. I kept thinking "How come I have never
heard of this book?" and never made the association between the English and
Portuguese titles.
So we read "A Perfect day for Bananafish" and the story obviously stuck to
my mind for months. Little did I know that the same story had been subject
of many PhD thesis and all. My best friend left for college and read The
Catcher there, called me up the next day and said: Nanda, it is like if you
had written this book! You have got to read it! It was exciting, but I
didn't really care. Before coming back to Brasil, though, as I was leaving
the English clasroom, I picked up the little book with the red cover and
said to my teacher I was stealing it to have some entertainment in the
plane. The teacher didn't argue. He just smiled and nodded, like if he was
telling me "You'll have a surprise!"
I did.
I keep the book safe now, I became another person, everything is
changed, my life is upside down, I got on the internet, I wanted Salinger,
to know more about him, his writings, it is almost ironic. The psycholist
proved to be right at least about one thing. So I would incredibly
appreciate if anyone who'd like to discuss literary aspects of S. and the
Catcher or anything else for that matter, to get in touch with. I am not
like this all the time. Stupid, I mean. If I really make an effort, I can be
smarter. It is just that... I can't help being emotional with the Catcher,
it simply aniquilates any possible logical reasoning and reaches deep into
my uncouncious sentiments.
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