Re: view point - through the keyhole
Pasha Paterson (gpaterso@richmond.edu)
Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:16:59 -0400
At 19:10 10/21/98 -0400, Morgan Speirlow wrote:
> I was talking to my friend today and oddly enough the topic of JD Salinger
>came up. She said she was in her AP English class and her teacher struck
up a
>conversation about JD Salinger and his works. She then proceeded to ask me
>why I had such an interest in his stories. I guess her teacher was telling
>the class that she hated Salinger because she felt that in he started or
>atleast furthered a negative stereotype about teenagers. (Catcher) I figure
>she must have missed the point of the story or read it as an adult with
little
>understanding of teenage feelings/thoughts. Also, it's totally
ridiculous to
>base your whole opinion of an author on one work, she's a teacher she's
>suppose to know better. Just wondering what you guys thought about this.
>I've never heard this particular view point before.
Short response: I agree.
Developed response (approx. cash value $0.02):
Anyone who thinks she "understands" Salinger just from reading _Catcher_ is
just plain full of it. _Catcher_ is Salinger's only attempt at an explicitly
defined "novel", and follows precious few of the habits he follows in the
short stories. The style of writing is totally different from the shorts,
Holden is a very different character from some of the other narrator
characters
like Buddy, X, or de Daumier-Smith. Trying to generalize on Salinger's work
through _Catcher_ alone is only a little less absurd than, say, making
generalizations on Shakespeare's plays by critically analyzing his sonnets.
(Before you accuse me of being guilty of this myself in my comments on Rand,
let me plead that I was not trying to generalize on Rand's works as a whole,
but solely on _Anthem_, which I read.)
Thus I am not saying that anyone who has not read all of an author's works
cannot effectively comment on that author; I am only cautioning that the
critic who has only read a small selection of an author's works should limit
her criticism to that work, and not assume generalizations on works of which
that critic has no knowledge or experience. If that teacher wants to mouth
off on how bad _Catcher_ is, and how Holden is a representative of a typical
negative teen stereotype, let her; she is as entitled to her view as much as
anyone else. But if all she has read of Salinger's works is _Catcher_, then
she should not be so quick to dismiss Salinger as a teen-basher.
________________________________________
G.H.G.A. Paterson
(804)662-3737 gpaterso@richmond.edu
RC Box 0411
28 Westhampton Way
University of Richmond, VA
23229-0411
________________________________________