Re: Quiet list? there's always
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Sat, 27 Jun 1998 00:20:58 -0400
> Also, I thought Jim Caroll in _Basketball Diaries_ was a lot like
> Holden. A friend (Darren, who is also on this list...*ahem*...*grin*)
> said Caroll was, in that book, what Holden would be like if you spent
> too much time with him.
> While I really liked Holden, I didn't like Caroll. I think that had a
> lot to do with how they dealt with things. Caroll turned to drugs to
> alter the reality that bothered him so much; Holden tried to deal with
> it on his own, which ultimately, I guess, didn't work, since he had a
> breakdown in the end.
Jim Carroll, in the books, was like the dark side of Holden. Somehow, no
matter how screwy he might become, I imagine Holden as always, in the end,
endearing in a loony way. But Carroll, I wouldn't have trusted him -- as
he appears in the Diaries and the followup book -- with a pair of used
shoelaces.
It's probably my own personal reaction, though; there's a place for junkies
in the food chain, but I don't want to be near them, and I think I would
have hated it if I'd been dropped into Carroll's company. But I wouldn't
have minded wandering the city with Holden.
(The amazing thing, after reading Carroll's books, is that like Lou Reed,
he's still around to tell what happened, after living the kind of life that
should have killed him! And I guess there's some hope in there, that if a
Jim Carroll can survive in his harsh real world, a gentler soul like Holden
has a chance of surviving, too. He certainly has a lot more resources to
fall back on in his world.)
--tim o'connor