Re: Salinger's bad influence

Julia Haldemann (haldemann@frankeser.ch)
Thu, 06 May 1999 17:45:08 +0200 

u know there is a really interesting question about this...I mean about how much
u should protect the single person from bad in fluence...I mean from things your
cultural and historical contes considers bad...drugs...cigarettes...wathever.
has the society really the right to keep these things away from u
ok..I hope someone understood wath I am talking about...It really scares me that
someone decides for me wath I should and should not do...
julia

Thor Cameron wrote:

> Are you kidding?  I've read books about Rock climbing, deep sea fishing, and
> shooting herion.  I've never done any of those.  You don't protect by
> sheltering children.  You protect by teaching them to find things as
> distateful as you do.
>
> Thor
>
> >
> >I'm worried about the bad influence Salinger's work might
> >have on teenagers. I am of course talking about the
> >cigarettes. In like 90 % of his stories people are
> >always smoking like crazy. Just think of all those
> >poor stupid little impressionable teenagers who might
> >start smoking after reading Catcher or other stories. So
> >I've come up with an idea. In future editions of
> >Salinger's work, someone should edit out all the
> >cigarettes and replace them with lollipops. This would
> >in no way take away from the meaning and content of
> >the story but it would be much healthier. For instance,
> >Esme could go something like this:
> >
> >    ...Sergeant X took a lollipop and stuck it in his mouth.
> >    He licked it but didn't taste anything. He had been
> >    chain-licking lollipops for weeks...
> >
> >But then again, lollipops are bad for your teeth, so
> >that might be a bad influence too. Maybe we could use
> >fruit or vegatables? Cabbage maybe?
> >
> >On a similar note, for those who are worried about the
> >profanity in Catcher, we could edit that out too.
> >Instead of Holden saying 'Goddamn' all the time he
> >could maybe say 'Golly' or 'Oh darn'.
> >
> >Just a thought...
> >
> >
> >                                        -Grant-
> >
> >
> >"Just because you're paranoid
> >  don't mean they're not after you"
> >                       K. Cobain
> >
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