Re: Sat AM Cartoons
blah b b blah (jrovira@juno.com)
Sat, 06 Mar 1999 12:09:06 -0500 (EST)
heh...that was pretty good, Will, thanks :)
I think I mentioned this earlier, but my college has an "alumni college"
every so often. It basically consists of morning and afternoon seminars
on a number of different subjects. This year one of the English
professors is doing a seminar entitled "Catcher turns 50." I've signed
up for it and am in the process of writing a paper for the class, and
look forward to having a good time with it.
So I've started rereading Catcher, and now I have to think about
Camille's Zen hypothesis as I'm reading it :) I have to even if I didn't
want to, it's stuck there now :)
I see where you're coming from RE non-linear narrative. What Holden does
is talk in loops. If you picture the narrative structure as a straight
line, what Holden does is take a detour off that line when a detail from
the main narrative reminds him of something else. So he goes on his
detour then returns to the straight line, the "main road," so to speak.
In the first chapter, every time Holden opens a paragraph with "anyways"
that signifies a return to the main narrative after a departure. The "I
forgot" paragraph signals a departure from a departure, a parenthetical
comment. But he always does manage to return to the main narrative
structure, the story does eventually move from point A to point B.
Talking in loops is indicative of a specific type of personality, not
necessarily a philosophy, but in a cross-cultural communication seminar I
attended it's interesting that "talking in loops" was associated with
middle-eastern speakers -- from say Egypt to India.
I've only reread the first two chapters or so and BOY I wonder how Warren
French could so easily dismiss the idea that Holden was in a Cal.
sanitarium.
First page about Holden's brother DB --
"He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place and he
visits me practially every week end."
Ok, so he's obviously out in CA, not far from Hollywood CA (so still in
Southern CA), and is not living with his brother.
He went there because he "got pretty run down and had to come out here
and take it easy" (page 1).
then on page 5 --
"That's also how I practically got t.b. and came out here for all these
goddam checkups and stuff. I'm pretty healthy, though."
I mean, JEEZ, what ELSE are we supposed to think? He's somewhere in
Southern CA (warm climate) in a place that gives him checkups and has
forced him to quit smoking (a line just previous to the line quoted). He
later says he was 16 when the events of Catcher took place and is 17
while he's writing.
"I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now..." (p. 9).
It was "around Christmas" (p. 1) when the events of Catcher took place,
so it's been some months. He's going to be returning home "next month
sometime." If I were gonna take a guess, I'd say he's returning home
some time prior to the coming school year, maybe July or August at the
absolute latest. At his age he's probably getting ready to enter his
senior year of High School (or would be if he hadn't failed out so many
times). But this part is just guessing, I know.
This is the third or fourth time I've read Catcher, by God this time I'm
gonna pay more attention :)
Jim
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