Re: holden

WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Sun, 02 Nov 1997 16:14:27 -0700 (MST) 

well, I don't know about withdrawing catcher because of an editor reading
holden as crazy or begining a class with how holden is sick (I think he's
pretty holy myself), but I do know that in an upublished story ("An
Ocean Full of Bowling Balls"), Salinger has two fictional Caulfield
brothers in a scene where one of them, Kenneth (an Allie prototype) is
about to walk out of a clam house because the owner implied holden was
crazy...but then again, one of holden's first appearances in print was in
l945 in a Collier's story, titled, what else but "I'm Crazy."

I know that mr. salinger spent some time in a psychiatric institution
after WWII and may know that the line between brilliance and insanity is
often crossed with misunderstanding.  I think Holden wasn't crazy but so
honest and kind and human that he was contradicted with the fact that
"people are always ruining things" and his awkwardness in preventing
humans (including himself) from not ruining things.  In other words, I
think Holden was healthy in a sic world--so healthy it made him sick...

will

On Sun, 2 Nov 1997 oconnort@nyu.edu wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 02, 1997 at 11:02:46AM -0800, Emily Moore wrote:
> 
> > I'll never forget walking into English class the day after finishing 
> > Catcher, and my English teacher beginning the discussion with, "Ok, 
> > class, now if you were the psychiatrist talking to Holden here, what 
> > mental illness would you diagnose him with that would explain his 
> > behavior throughout the book?" 
> 
> This is funny, because according to contemporary reports (especially 
> Hamilton, "In Search of J.D. Salinger," Random House, p. 114-115), JDS
> angrily withdrew the book from consideration by Harcourt Brace because
> one of the editorial staff thought Holden was crazy.  I vaguely remember
> this also reported by Warren French.
> 
> Strangely enough, I have a friend (who has sworn me to secrecy when it
> comes to mentioning her name or book!) who did something similar with 
> her novel, when she felt that the prospective editor (a man) did not 
> "get" her narrator or the narrator's story.  She was much more 
> comfortable placing the book with someone else -- and, maybe not 
> coincidentally, with a woman as her editor.  (The book is narrated by 
> a woman, and definitely requires a reader to pay careful attention 
> to that fact.)
> 
> --tim o'connor
>