Re: greetings and salutations
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Mon, 13 Sep 1999 21:21:09 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 9/13/99 8:46:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
verona_beach@hotpop.com writes:
<<
I don't make speculations rashly. This is no exception.
Camille >>
Yeah, I should have quoted your post. Ok, it's probably safe to say that
Salinger didn't intend for Holden to be seen as schizophrenic, but really it
has about the same textual support as the other positions you mentioned --
religious fanatic, gay, or sexually abused. I could probably argue Holden
schizo better than, say, Holden religious fanatic, at any rate. I don't see
Holden running around thumping people over the head with various sacred
texts, but I do see that weird thing with his hair going on (two different
colors), and I see him under some kind of professional care. In other words,
it's not crazy to think Holden was crazy, although I don't really buy that
myself. So I still don't really see the point, unless you want to completely
limit the meaning of Catcher to Salinger's stated intent.
<<What I'm
trying to say is that the conditions have slowly changed in which
characters like Holden and DDS have been allowed to form themselves in his
mind - the types of characters he came up with in his early career differ
quite greatly in their outlook and basic type from his later fiction.
Camille>>
Yeah, I could see that, but how does Hapworth fit into this?
Jim