RE: intelligence of the author vs. intelligence of the characters

as for the influence of catcher, all i can say is this: before i read it, i
didn't read many books of my own volition. now, i read 7-10 a week. does one
really need any more proof than that as to the success of a book?

>===== Original Message From Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> =====
>Yep, I can see that. It actually worked in reverse for me. I never read
>Catcher in High School. A female friend gave me her copy of _Franny and
Zooey_
>to read when I was 25 thinking, I suspect, that I really needed to learn
>something from it :).
>
>A little something about Franny and Lane, and a little bit more about Zooey.
>
>I think I picked up Catcher when I was 33 or 34.
>
>Jim
>
>m e g h a n wrote:
>
>> >I actually feel the same way you do about Catcher and the Glass stories (I
>> >get a lot more out of the Glass stories). . .just, if you want to judge
>> >Salinger's influence, there's just no getting around or beyond Catcher.
>>
>> I agree also. What gets me about "Catcher" is that (this may be
selfish)it's
>> not Salinger's best work, yet it's taught in high schools, which gets it a
>> lot of exposure. Then you have kids full of real or imagined angst who are
>> like, man that book is me! I can relate! And they then credit Salinger as
>> their favorite author.. without ever reading any of his other (better)
work.
>> It's just given too much credit. The selfish part comes in because I first
>> read Catcher when I was 13, I had seen it in a bookstore and made my mom
buy
>> it. Fast forward three years, it's being taught in english and there's 100
>> kids or however many in my class saying how much they love it.. when they
>> probably never would have read it on their own. I guess I should hope that
>> someone reads Catcher in english class, and then reads Salinger's other
work
>> and falls in love with it like I did, and then I can thank Catcher for
that.
>>
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" I would gladly trade all my friends for the company of children."
                                                -Albert Einstien

Matthew S. Mahoney
Station B 8209
matthew.s.mahoney@vanderbilt.edu

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Received on Tue Sep 3 22:48:01 2002