Re: First Catcher memories?
Peggy F. Jean-Louis (pfj6868@is.nyu.edu)
Mon, 24 Nov 1997 19:50:27 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 23 Nov 1997, Bethany M. Edstrom wrote:
> This anecdote got a little too long, but what I'm asking is, first, what all of
> you remember about your "first time" with Catcher, what your circumstances
> were, and then any philosophical musings you might have about how those
> circumstances affected your reading of it. And if anyone read it for the first
> time in adulthood, what was that like? I can't imagine it...
>
I was 14 years old the first time I read Catcher, it was assigned in
Freshman English. Mostly, I remember being awed by how incredibly
different it was from anything else I'd ever read, amused and titillated
by the language, and *amazed* that I would be assigned something so...fun
to read in an English class. It instantly became my favorite novel, and
I did feel changed in some inexplicable way. However, I didn't really
appreciate the novel or understand just how it had transformed my view of
the world until I read it much later, maybe when I was 17 or 18 years
old. When I read it at that time of my life, I really related to Holden in
that I was feeling what he felt, that the world is full of phonies and
that it's enough to drive you "nuts", although I don't think he was crazy
(I subscribe to the idea that he was sane in an insane world). I remember
feeling relieved...that I wasn't the only one who felt that way. I think
that message is something you can relate to no matter what age you are,
especially if you've always sort of felt that way. Reading
it as an "adult" (which i'm not quite sure I am yet), I never only see
the sad parts, mostly I think it's hysterically funny, as well as moving
and profound and philosphical. So I think you can read it as an adult for
the first time and really fall in love with it, maybe not the same way a
12-year old or a 14-year old falls in love, but just as passionately and
abidingly.
Peggy