Subject: See More Phonies
From: Jennifer Besiada (jbesiada@nettel.com)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 14:50:10 GMT
First of all, Scottie, great text. Beautifully exemplary of how insecure we
can all be at times. In instances not only applicable to literature, we are
repeatedly forced to form opinions and usually feel compelled to "stick to
them". In the psychology world, when actions oppose beliefs, we apparently
experience "cognitive dissonance". We react similarly, I believe, in
situations where we are tempted to change our original views and when we are
told that these views are "passé" ("Left with the choice of either proving
our opinions or changing them, most of us get busy on the proof" --unknown).
And, fortunately, I do not believe we will ever stop encountering situations
where people try to chance our views. Most of us loved "CITR" the first
time around. Perhaps some of us were eventually told it appealed only to
the distraught adolescent. I first read "CITR" in grad school of my own
free will. The first Salinger-addict I spoke to waved a descending hand at
me and said, "Catcher is good high school reading. But it is nothing
compared to 'RHTRBC'." So, Scout, maybe it does indeed have to do with
order and our own fabricated idea our mental "growth". I, personally, love
Holden and Franny and Zooey just as much as Corrine and Raymond Ford.
Quick applause to Judith Shulevitz. I absolutely giggled when she claimed
we are lured in by the dream of our unappreciated genius, and I nodded, over
and over, when JD was compared to the "that screwed up kid from senior year"
for I, too, want to continue believing that JD is "one hell of a guy".
One of my few shivers came when she claimed that those with the most
sensitive, precocious souls were forced to leave everyone else behind in the
phoniness of the world. It made me feel as if she had completely missed the
boat as far as Seymour Glass goes. If anyone was self-actualized enough to
put up with the phonies of the world, if he really felt it worth his time,
it was Seymour.
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