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

I think it is kind of interesting hearing how and when people started getting
into Salinger's work. I first read Catcher when I was a sophomore in college;
I was 19, I'm now 21. Within 6 months afterwards I had read everything he had
ever published including the 22 uncollected stories and since then I have read
Catcher twice and Franny and Zooey once and will probably reread everything
again soon as there have been very few authors I have ever read where I have
the sudden urge to run out and buy and hunt down everything they have ever
published even looking under pseudonym's after I have exhausted everything
else.
I had never previously been presented Catcher before probably because I am
from Texas and well....Catcher in the Rye is not the most widely accepted
book. Although, I didnt really hear anything "bad" about it, it was just
never brought up, like it wasnt even a possibility for curriculum, even in the
ritzy private school I spent my last two years of high school where we did
read such things as Gardner's Grendel and O'Connor, and Hurston's Their Eyes
Were Watching God. Maybe at that private school they had read Catcher in
previous grades. Another interesting thing is that while the private school I
attended was in many ways more conservative than the public schools I had
attended my whole life (probably due to its parochial nature - Episcopalian)
yet the curriculum was much wider and professors had more free reign than I
had ever encountered in public schools. For example, I rememeber a government
class where I was arguing with everyone else in the class of about 16 who all
seemed to be future young republicans that someone wasn't necessarily an idiot
because they were poor. There is much much more that goes into it. I
remember that conversation yet I also remember in an english class talking
about the sadness of characters and existentialism in things like Gardner's
Grendel and O'Connor's Wise Blood.
Hopefully this will reach everyone.
Best,
Levi

>===== Original Message From "m e g h a n" <bedroomdancing@hotmail.com> =====
>>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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Received on Tue Sep 3 23:26:40 2002