brushing shoulders with Holden Caulfield?

This isn't EXACTLY about Holden Caulfield, but by a stretch of the
imagination, well ... see what you think.

There was a fascinatingly tormented documentary on HBO last night, a
one-hour feature called BORN RICH, directed by Johnson & Johnson heir
Jamie Johnson, focused on his circle of (rich) friends, from such
families as the Vanderbilt/Whitneys, the Trumps, the Bloombergs, the
Newhouses, and several others. (By the way, all quotes below are my
paraphrases from memory; actual lines are probably slightly more
gory!)

Johnson -- unlike his peers and his father -- is obsessed with the
meaning of his life as a kid born to enormous wealth, and can't help
asking questions about the meaning of it all. He is ostensibly
seeking to find motivation for himself when, as he acknowledges, he
doesn't have to work, doesn't have to do anything. (A rare-book
dealer, whom Johnson visits after his father aimlessly suggests a
career "collecting old books and maps" [!], asks, in bewilderment,
"Why would anyone work when they don't have to work?")

Yet he wants to avoid being a do-nothing rich kid. He asks his father
for advice, but his father is incredibly spineless about it, another
type of Salinger echo, at least for me. (The father's most relevant
advice is that his son should not ask rich people about their money,
because it's tasteless to do so.)

In the various interviews with the rich kids, we get a freak show
ranging from insanely off-the-wall ("At school there was some kid,
from Connecticut or something, and I'm like, 'I'm from New York and
I can buy you up and piss on you'") to relatively humble (mortification
about having a prospective girlfriend meet his parents, because "your
parents are going to ask, oh, where do you summer?" and the interviewee
at least recognizes the absurdity of his family assuming that everyone
who comes through the door is as rich as they are).

I couldn't help thinking of Holden, living his affluent and sheltered
life, hiding his expensive suitcases, showing us the nasty underside
of his boarding school life, worrying that he was going to turn into
one of those lawyers that wants to talk about how many miles to the
gallon his car gets and riding the Madison Avenue bus.

As I was watching so many of these people self-destruct, I kept
expecting one of them to make mention of Holden, but I guess my
expectations were too high. The only reference that comes close to a
literary reference is when the Newhouse kid rattles off all the
media assets his family owns, and mentions "The New Yorker" in the
laundry list.

There's something about it at:

        http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/born_rich/index.html

I'm curious if anyone else here happened to catch it, and, if so, sees
the parallel that I'm talking about.

I hope everyone's well. It's been awfully quiet in here! You guys
are usually at each other's throats at about this time of the year.

--tim

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Received on Tue Oct 28 10:01:47 2003