This is a multi-part message in MIME format. You need a MIME compliant mail reader to completely decode it. --=_-=_-FEGJODHNNEPJEAAA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 2068 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >I just joined this page last night, and it's already such a lovely place... >Although I'm feeling a bit narcissistic about sharing my Catcher experiences (although >I always maintain eye contact in the mirror), this entire thing has been so nice, >I can't help but get in on it... > >I first read Catcher when I was fourteen, a freshman in high school. It was an assignment >for my English class--in a Catholic school no less! (I got the axe, to quote a madman, >after that first year and repaired, feeling quite rebellious, to public school.) > > >My first impression, you'll love to know, was the language. I'm a writer (aren't >we all...), and I'd censored myself like a Nazi...but I read Catcher... > >I know Holden is depressed at the word "fuck", and the way he finds it, it depresses >me too...But it wasn't the profanity alone--it was the entire accuracy of the teenager's >perception of this world. It's a profane world, and teenagers are profane little >people. > >This was the first book I'd ever read that spoke to me, literally SPOKE to me--and >on more levels than I was quite aware of at the time. > >Like every teenager, I felt that I was Holden, and I also felt that no one else could >be as much Holden as I was. > >It's nice to be alone sometimes. It's nice to be depressed at a phony world. It's >nice to be a little bitter, a little hypocritical. Sometimes I like to feel bigger >than this world, to feel like the world is too small to hold my life, like Seymour. > > >And of course, Phoebe is always there at the end, on the merry-go-round, the endless >loop, the cycle, and of course nothing can touch Allie. He's immortal. > >When I finish the book, it doesn't matter if I've fallen or not. Because no matter what or when, there's >always those little kids who have to go meet their friends, and that kills me. > >B. McKennedy > > > > > >Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! >http://www.mailexcite.com > Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com --=_-=_-FEGJODHNNEPJEAAA Cc: Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sent-Mail: on Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 23:54:59 -0700 From: "Brendan McKennedy" <the.tourist> Subject: Re: First Catcher memories? X-Mailer: MailCity Service Message_Id: <EEBGHGPBABPJEAAA@mailexcite.com> Organization: MailExcite (http://www.mailexcite.com) X-Sender-Ip: 207.172.43.176 To: "bananafish" <banafish@lists.nyu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Length: 1901 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I just joined this page last night, and it's already such a lovely place... Although I'm feeling a bit narcissistic about sharing my Catcher experiences (although I always maintain eye contact in the mirror), this entire thing has been so nice, I can't help but get in on it... I first read Catcher when I was fourteen, a freshman in high school. It was an assignment for my English class--in a Catholic school no less! (I got the axe, to quote a madman, after that first year and repaired, feeling quite rebellious, to public school.) My first impression, you'll love to know, was the language. I'm a writer (aren't we all...), and I'd censored myself like a Nazi...but I read Catcher... I know Holden is depressed at the word "fuck", and the way he finds it, it depresses me too...But it wasn't the profanity alone--it was the entire accuracy of the teenager's perception of this world. It's a profane world, and teenagers are profane little people. This was the first book I'd ever read that spoke to me, literally SPOKE to me--and on more levels than I was quite aware of at the time. Like every teenager, I felt that I was Holden, and I also felt that no one else could be as much Holden as I was. It's nice to be alone sometimes. It's nice to be depressed at a phony world. It's nice to be a little bitter, a little hypocritical. Sometimes I like to feel bigger than this world, to feel like the world is too small to hold my life, like Seymour. And of course, Phoebe is always there at the end, on the merry-go-round, the endless loop, the cycle, and of course nothing can touch Allie. He's immortal. When I finish the book, it doesn't matter if I've fallen or not. Because there's always those little kids who have to go meet their friends, and that kills me. B. McKennedy Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com --=_-=_-FEGJODHNNEPJEAAA--