So I decided to reread this book! The last time I read it I was an angsty teenager. This time, when I started I was feeling low and I was all, "Yeah, Holden, I can so relate!" but then by the halfway point I was like, "SUCK IT UP HOLDEN, OR YOU'RE GONNA GET A PURSE-SMACK. AND DON'T BE THINKING THAT THE BEATLES PURSE IS GOING TO HURT LESS BECAUSE IT IS SMALLER. IT IS MORE COMPACT AND IT WILL HURT TWICE AS MUCH." Sooo yeah. Long story short, it's been removed from the 'classics'/'books everyone should read' shelf and will be moved down to the regular shelf. It's still a little cruel that it has to be next to a Goosebumps book, but oh well. These things happen.
So tell me you know what this is about. An angsty teenager fails out of school and goes back home and stuff. It's another twenty-four-hour deal. Fun times.
If you like South Park you've probably seen the Catcher in the Rye episode. I think it's absolutely hilarious, even if that makes me sound like a bad person. See, the Catcher in the Rye was once--and actually in some places it still is--considered a really controversial book because of the swearing and references to sex. Listen. Margaret Atwood is dirtier than Catcher in the Rye. So Mr Garrison explains that this is the book that made Mark David Chapman kill John Lennon. Butters finishes the book and he starts going crazy, like "Must... kill... John... Lennon", and he takes a knife out of the drawer. He goes to his dad and asks him where John Lennon lives, and his dad says that John Lennon is dead, of course. So he's like aww, man! and goes back to his room. ...Okay, it's funnier on the show. (And all the episodes are online, so...)
And we were discussing this one day in Intro to Lit and Mrs CF was talking about how scared she was to read it because, in her words, "Every weirdo is found with a copy of Catcher in the Rye!" She's worried that if she reads it she'll go insane or something. I can relate, I'm scared to read Nietzsche for the same reason.
Sooooo let's go.
First, people tend to put this book's opening as one of the best book openings ever. Here's the opening: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth" (1). Excuse me? That's not best. It's new and different, but come on here. Pride and Prejudice. The Hobbit. A Tale of Two Cities. Just to name a few. I highly doubt Caulfield had a crappy David Copperfield-esque childhood. Also, Caulfield, don't compare yourself to David Copperfield, or your book to his. Call me touchy, but that book is fantastic. Let's be real with ourselves, Holden.
One of the first things--people--Holden talks about is his older brother DB. He says his brother is an author and that one of his best stories is "The Secret Goldfish"--a kid buys a goldfish but won't let people look at it because he paid for it all by himself. I wonder of JD Salinger actually wrote this story--though perhaps under a different title. (There is actually apparently a book called The Secret Goldfish, but it was written in 2004.) And I'm thinking that perhaps this story might supposed to be symbolic or something, but to be honest... I'm not sure how. I have trouble taking this book seriously.
I also wonder if DB is supposed to based off of an author JD Salinger knew, or just authors in general--DB moves up to Hollywood to presumably write scripts, and Holden says that he's become a prostitute.
Okay yeah, one of the most annoying things about Holden is when he says a fact--or what he believes to be a fact, and the next sentence is "it really does", or he'll state a belief or opinion, and say, "I really believe that." And I just want to be like, "WELL OBVIOUSLY HOLDEN, THAT'S WHY YOU SAID IT!" I get that he's supposed to be an unsure teenager and wants to be sure we don't think he's a phony too and all of that but honestly, stop. I could smack you upside the head. Upside the gray part. BAM.
"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse" (4). He means that people are saying by, making some kind of fanfare or something to show in some way they are aware that you're going. This I agree with.
Also, that sad good-bye and bad good-bye made me think of Shel Silverstein. Sorry, it's too late to unthink it now.
"'He just kept talking about Life being a game and all. You know.' 'Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.' 'Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.' Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right--I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game" (8). / "His opponent, the big blond boy, already knows this; there is a touching gallantry in his defense. He is so sweet-naturedly beautiful, so nobly made; and yet his classical cream-marble body seems a handicap to him. The rules of the game inhibit it from functioning. He is fighting at a hopeless disadvantage. He should throw away his useless racket, vault over the net, , and force the cruel little gold cat to submit to his marble strength. No, on the contrary, the blond boy accepts the rules, binds himself by them, will suffer defeat and humiliation rather than break them... He will fight clean, a perfect sportsman, until he has lost the last game. And won't this keep happening to him all through his life? Won't he keep getting himself involved in the wrong kind of game, the kind of game he was never born to play, against an opponent who is quick and clever and merciless?" (53). This is from Isherwood's A Single Man, when George is watching the two tennis-playing teenagers. Anyways, I see where Holden is coming from. I know exactly what Holden is saying. It's not so much that I disagree with him, it's just that after a while he gets annoying. I get antsy, you know? Like, GET TO THE BLOODY POINT ALREADY! He just drags and drags after a while.
"People never notice anything" (9).
When he's leaving Mr Spencer: "After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn't exactly hear him. I'm pretty sure he yelled 'Good luck!' at me. I hope not. I hope to hell not. I'd never yell 'Good luck!' at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it" (16).
So Holden bought an orange hunting hat with the flaps and all in NYC. This kid Ackley starts ragging on him for it--saying it's a deer shooting hat. Holden responds with: "'Like hell it is... This is a people shooting hat... I shoot people in this hat'" (22). Call me crazy, but I actually saw it as a really cute scene. The way I imagined him saying it... Kind of like a little kid. It sounds little kiddish, the way he words it... Anyways, this might be why the book ends up in the possession of serial killers or inspiring them or what have you. Problem: phonies. Solution: shoot them. It's the only reference to shooting I see... And instead of just quietly getting agitated by 'phonies' and trying to ignore them and avoid them, this passage could be the "Wait! I have a better solution!" passage. I don't know. I'm not a serial killer. I'd make a pretty poor one at any rate. (PS. Aspiring serial killers out there: Holden is not being serious! He is kidding.)
"He was always asking you to do him a big favor. You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he's a real hot-shot, and they're always asking you to do them a big favor. Just because they're crazy about themself, they think that you're crazy about them, too, and that you're just dying to do them a favor" (28). Holden is talking about his roommate, who asks Holden to write him up a composition--even though Holden has failed out (though Holden is very talented in English and actually did pass that). Holden does end up writing him a very nice piece about his dead brother's baseball mitt, but the roommate thinks it's stupid--so Holden just tears it up and throws it away out of agitation.
"Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad" (52).
So Holden leaves school, but instead of going home he wanders around NYC. Eventually he goes to a club and starts talking to a lady... "The band was starting a fast one. She started jitterbugging with me--but just very nice and easy, not corny. She was really good. All you had to do was touch her. And when she turned around, her pretty little butt twitched so nice and all. She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them" (73).
He also get agitated over the people clapping over the piano player--the player was trying to be really show-offy, and in doing so, he really screws the number up, The people were stupid and not realizing he was a screw up, and were clapping and all--Holden says if he was an actor or a piano player he wouldn't want these people to think he was good. "I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet" (84).
And Holden sees a college fellow telling a girl about a fellow who committed suicide on pills while giving his girlfriend a feel. He's shocked at that behaviour, and I don't blame him--there's a bit in Factotum where Henry sees a sailor doing pretty much the same thing to his girl. I want to say that the sailor's victim was eaten by alligators or something weird like that, but yeah. Tried and true way to pick up ladies?
"People are always ruining things for you" (87).
"It's no fun to be yellow" (89).
"One of my troubles is, I never care too much when I lose something--it used to drive my mother crazy when I was a kid. Some guys spend days looking for something they lost. I never seem to have anything that if I lost it I'd care too much" (89).
"You take a girl when she really gets passionate, she just hasn't any brains" (92). Hehe.
Also, Holden describes a book he read about a fellow named Monsieur Blanchard. Just for future reference: the book in question is (according to KGB and Amazon.com) is Warped in the Making: Crimes of Love and Hate. Hm. Seems interesting.
Holden also complains about how Catholics apparently are always trying to figure out if you're a Catholic too. He's talking about how he met a fellow at one of the schools he flunked out of who he was having a great conversation with about tennis and stuff, and the kid clumsily brings up the subject of Catholicism--he asks Holden if he knows where the local Catholic church is. Granted, the kid could have just been asking an actual question--you know, "Do you know where it is?" and so on. Holden is a little bit of the unreliable narrator, so everything is bound to be slanted by what he thinks, and he could have just laid his own take on the situation--the definition of the situation and all of that. Still, whether Holden was right or not, he says you could tell--it seemed like you could tell--that the boy would have enjoyed the conversation even more if they were both Catholic. "That kind of stuff drives me crazy. I'm not saying it ruined our conversation or anything--it didn't--but it sure as hell didn't do it any good" (113).
Holden starts driving me nuts about when he starts complaining about actors. I understand his complaints about actors who are too good--whose acting attempts to be real end up being too real and end up looking ultra-rehearsed anyways. But then he talks about how he's always worried because he's scared even good actors will do something phony in the next instant. That bothers me. Everybody has a bit of arrogance, I admit that. But jeez, chill out! He's like the super-hipster. HE IS THE ORIGINAL HIPSTER.
And Holden goes to the museum and starts talking about how he's always loved it: "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole... and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way--I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it" (122). I totally know how he feels. There's something incredibly reassuring about going to museum you know like the back of your hand and having it be the same, even if you haven't been there for a few years. For example, I could probably go through the Peabody museum blindfolded and still be able to tell you exactly where everything is (except for that new caveman bit and the room that has monthly exhibits, of course)... But like the dinosaurs, the ancient animals, the contemporary animals, the birds... I guess the crystals and geodes too, but I never much pay attention those things... Oh, and the kid's room! But I'm too old for the kid's room. But I could describe that room in perfect detail if need be. I need to have kids so I have an excuse to go into the kid's room... Or borrow kids. I like that better. So... Yeah. (Of course, it goes both ways. When they change something it can be shocking and even devastating, though fortunately they've mainly changed the geological exhibits, and like I said, I'm not exactly invested in those.)
...He goes on and says... "I kept walking and walking, and I kept thinking about old Phoebe going to that museum on Saturdays the way I used to. I thought how she'd see the same stuff I used to see, and how she'd be different every time she saw it. It didn't exactly depress me to think of it, but it didn't make me feel gay as hell, either. Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway" (122). (Phoebe is his little sister, by the way).
"If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody" (125). Men, this goes for you too. (PS. Holden goes on a date!)
On his date, he starts attempting to explain what about society and people he's so fed up with. The girl of course doesn't get it, but it made me start thinking. I mean, they're the normal our society and culture is stupid blah blah blah that anyone can spit out, but then Holden starts talking about going off to live in the woods. Now, let me back up a little. A few months ago, the book Into the Wild happened to come up in conversation during Intro to Lit. Every kid--except me--hated it. I admit that Christopher didn't act smartly--in fact he acted the opposite of smartly--but I still liked and admired him. My teacher adequately ripped him apart, especially on the fact that it never explains why he was so agitated and had to leave. In the movie they have to make up things. She actually had a really good phrase to describe his unexplained feelings, and I can't remember what it was... It was like "cul de sac ennui", or something. I sort of thought about it, but I put it out of mind for whatever reason, probably too busy to think about it really. But, when I read this part... my first thought was automatically, oh my God, he's Holden Caulfield. Which ended up sort of ruining him in my eyes--he's not some Christ figure, he's not some big hero or idol, he was just a confused, disenchanted kid who didn't know what to do--so he did what he did. So... Yeah. I'm not saying that this book inspired Christopher--it isn't even mentioned--but I guess that maybe it proves that Salinger got the teenage brain down pat.
Anyways, the date flops because the girl is basically a phony in Holden's eyes. Truth is, she's the one doing the thinking--well, I see both sides. Yeah, it's good to do spontaneous things. It's fun. It's life-changing. But at the same time, Holden is like, let's just get up and go! Move somewhere far away, I have $180, and all of that... Which is a stupid decision. Anyways, Holden gets agitated for her thinking things through, and tells her she's a pain in the ass, and yeah. There goes the date. So Holden leaves, drinks some more, and decides to sneak into his house and visit Phoebe.
"I'm not too sure old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she's only a little child and all. But she was listening, at least. If somebody at least listens, it's not too bad" (172).
Anyways, the title comes from the fact that Holden misheard that old bit, "If a Body Meet A Body"... He thought it was "If a Body Catch a Body". He tells Phoebe that that's what he wants to do--he imagines that there's a big playing field of rye on a cliff somewhere. There's thousands and thousands of kids, and if one starts veering off-track, he can catch the kid and keep them from falling off the end. I don't... I don't get it. Last time I read it I was all, "Holden's such a great guy, protecting those kids!" But now, I'm missing something maybe. I'm just like, that's great Holden... But it's stupid as hell. Maybe there's some fantastic display of humanity or symbolism or something I can't quite get. Maybe it's supposed to be symbolic of him keeping kids from veering off in life like he seems to have or something. Maybe he feels like he's fallen down a precipice. And at the same time... It's like, what makes it so great? I mean, when someone is in trouble, most people's first inclination is to help the person out. I would stop kids from falling off a cliff too. Why are we throwing Holden a big party? Everybody gets excited over this part and I just respond with what I've just written--you know? Maybe I'm just particularly obtuse today.
So Holden tells Phoebe he's going to leave, and Phoebe offers him her Christmas money. He feels guilty about it the next day and goes to her school to leave a note for Phoebe. While he's there, walking in the hallways: "I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another 'Fuck you' on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'Fuck you' signs in the world. It's impossible" (202).
"Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody" (214).
So... There's the book. Like I mentioned, it's being moved to the regular shelf, but it still is worth a read so your hipster friends don't beat you up. Well, maybe not the hipsters in your life, but I'd read it at least to say you've done it. Really, you look like a dunce if you've made it out of high school without reading this. It's not half-bad, but Salinger has done better. So... Yep!
MLA citation: Salinger, JD. The Catcher in the Rye. Bantam Books: New York, 1981.
(This is actually sort of disappointing. I thought this edition was much older... Though it does look like it's from the seventies, so I guess the date makes sense...)
Actually, have I explained what phonies are? Okay, we're not done yet then. Phonies are those people that you feel better than, whether you actually are or not. They're the sort--well... Hm. They seem like they don't get 'it' or 'you'. People that maybe blindly follow society and the 'big man's' ideas without question. So, a hipster would probably say I'm a phony. Like I said, Holden Caulfield is the original hipster. I don't have a better way of putting it.
Also, on an unrelated note--I love animated shorts from film festivals and all of that. On a whim, I searched for one that scarred me for life as a child. I was both pleased and horrified, of course. Enjoy! It was nominated for something in the Sundance film festival x years ago too, I guess.
Last post's cryptic song lyrics: Blame it on the Tetons by Modest Mouse
This post's cryptic song lyrics: I save my grace with half-assed guilt and lay down the quilt upon the lawn, spread my arms and soak up congratulations
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