Re: It's War!


Subject: Re: It's War!
From: Scout Thompson (one38@one38.org)
Date: Sat Sep 23 2000 - 19:23:20 GMT


I think there's been a lot of anti-Salinger mudslinging on the
list, at least opposed to what most mailing lists are, which is,
you know, discussion, we have people agreeing with the venomous
articles about him, etc.

My curiosity is this: If Catcher has lost our interest, is it
necessarily a failing, and is it necessarily HIS failing?
Certainly at a younger age we had more contempt for the
phony and the obscene. As we age we tend to get more balanced,
more understanding, at the same time, more compromised.

I, too, am not the fan of Catcher I used to be. In fact my
new obsessions are Hapworth and The Inverted Forest; mostly
because they're _new_ stories for me. Because I read Seymour:
An Introduction and RHTRC first, then Franny and Zooey - and
loved them all, mind you, once I got to Catcher I wasn't let
down, so to speak, I was just aware of a difference. [This
one isn't about seymour!]

Of course Holden seems passe when you read him at age 11. I
think that's a big reason there's so many atheists. Jesus Christ
himself gets a bit boring after being shoved down your throat
your entire life, particularly if you look at him from the
perspective of protagonist.

This isn't to say its an exclusive case with you, Matt. I'm
saying I agree- because now Catcher seems passe, and F+Z
seems "done," etc. I mean not in such a blatant manner at all.
I'm just wondering why that's happened to either of us.

-s.

Matt Kozusko wrote:
>
> I wrote:
>
> [disparaging things about Salinger's stories?]
>
> eryk salvaggio wrote:
>
> > Does anyone on this list like JD Salingers stories?
>
> I like them, eryk. Ever since I was ten. But to be honest, I liked
> them only in stages, and when I had passed into a new stage, the appeal
> of the past stage became a bit of a problem, the way one's affection for
> Legos ceased to make sense amidst one's enthusiasm for _The Keep on the
> Border_ and _The DM's Handbook_.
>
> When I was nearly eleven, post-_Catcher_ but pre-Glass, I went to the B.
> Dalton's in the mall and I bought, with a little help from my mother,
> _Franny and Zooey_. The grace that accompanied me as I strode from car
> to living room sank into bewilderment and then incredulity as my
> father's predicitons came true: this book was nothing like _Catcher_.
> It wasn't even funny. And I didn't even finish it. I must have read
> four pages before I began checking, re-checking and triple-checking the
> spine to confirm the author's--the impostor's--name: yes, "Salinger,"
> it said, and I supposed it was only just like Fortune and her hateful
> sisters to show me something beautiful and then destroy it right in
> front of me.
>
> A couple of years later, maybe three, _Catcher_ took on a different
> significance for me, and at the same time, I began to grow into _F&Z_,
> which I had picked up again and which suddenly offered plenty of very
> clever moments. By 18, I was indignant whenever anybody failed to join
> me in convulsive adoration for Buddy Glass, but Holden was quickly
> becoming passe. To have read only _Catcher_ was to have missed the
> point. Sure it was a good novel, but the real Member would immediately
> recognize the singular genius, the delicate emotional-intellectual
> predicament, of the Glass family. The same "story" in some respects,
> but while I had previously known _Catcher_ was written *just for me*, I
> now realized that it was actually "Zooey" and "Roofbeam" that were
> written just for me.
>
> The question is, Is this progression cicular, or linear? Will there
> shortly be a return to regard for _Catcher_, to be followed in five
> years by a rediscovery of the Glassworks? Or is it the end of the line
> for me? Must I be content with the slightly less pathological emotions
> in my few favorites from the _Nine_, which now seem to me Salinger's
> greatest achievements, his best-balanced, most skillfully crafted
> little bars of gold? "DD Smith" and "The Lauging Man" don't envelope
> themselves in their own absurdity, the way Glass children tend to. But
> as I float further and further from Truth out here in the cold academic
> sea (excuse me, "see"), will I eventually lose sight even of the
> Chief?
> -
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