Lifestyle

TOPICS:

Previous

PAGE: 

1 ... 

529 | 530 | 531

 ... 940

Next

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2

Next

Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Boston, MA
December 2003

JUL 18, 2004 09:56 PM

Scoot said:
Well, his little brother who was the most important person in his life did die, I would think that would make you pessimistic and ever weary



True, but I've known people older than him who have lost people close to them and didn't have quite the same attitude. I don't know, it was a subtle thing, and it bugged me while reading it. I just kept picturing an old man and was surprised every time I was reminded that he was a teenager.

grahf

grahf

New York, NY
September 2002

JUL 18, 2004 10:29 PM

freckle said:

Lemonkid said:
Deviant? He's a bloody picture of normality.. if he's deviant.. god knows what I am.



exactly. i think that's part of the reason the book became so popular. everyone sees it in themselves (or in someone they know), even if it is a bit naughty. and that's also part of the reason the book is hated.



Yeah, no one likes being reminded that at one point or another they were just as much of a whiny little b'zatch as Holden.

DrStinkypants

DrStinkypants

Saint Paul, MN
October 2002

JUL 18, 2004 10:53 PM

I dont think Holden is supposed to be a likable character, hes supposed to be identafiable.
Holden feels like a 'deviant' to Holden, but to me, the reader, he is completely normal. i think this is the purpose. if holden feels like i do, and i can realize that in the real world he is normal, maybe i can get past my own Holden-esque dissatisfaction and realize that im normal too.

stockula

stockula

Anchorage, AK
May 2003

JUL 18, 2004 11:35 PM

Typical disaffected young man. He's not deviant in the least. On the contrary, He's normal, or at least understandable to anyone who realizes what a crock the world is. Which is, most everyone. Hence the universal popularity of this novel.

I think Salingers' readers are mistaken in thinking they're the firrst ones to think these things or feel this way.But this is a book for teenage boys, who find this sort of stuff profound or dangerous. Nonsense. It is as old as the hills.


[Edited on Jul 18, 2004 by stockula]

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

JUL 19, 2004 12:14 AM

Holden seems desperatly lonely, but very uncomfortable around other people. Rather than admitting that the problem is with himself he attacks them.

The cab ride, where he talks about the ducks, is an example of him really wanting some kind of human contact, and then bollocksing it up.

cornelius

cornelius

Tempe, AZ
OLD SKOOL

JUL 19, 2004 02:02 PM

well, he hold's the title, and i am the challenger.

daversion

daversion

I'm lost
July 2004

JUL 19, 2004 02:47 PM

bean said:
He's alright wink

[Edited on Jul 18, 2004 by bean]


dammit, i wanted to do that. blackeyed

AndersWolleck

AndersWolleck

Astoria, NY
February 2003

JUL 19, 2004 02:52 PM

whenever i read that book i want to shoot female celebrities

One_Pure_Thought

One_Pure_Thought

East Greenwich, RI
October 2003

JUL 19, 2004 03:28 PM

It's a good book, and I liked it when I read it.

Any book that deals with a high school kid going through some sort of crisis, in one way or another it's just a rip off of that book.

freckle

freckle

Seattle, WA
January 2003

JUL 19, 2004 04:08 PM

Lemonkid said:

freckle said:

Lemonkid said:
Deviant? He's a bloody picture of normality.. if he's deviant.. god knows what I am.



exactly. i think that's part of the reason the book became so popular. everyone sees it in themselves (or in someone they know), even if it is a bit naughty. and that's also part of the reason the book is hated.



Holden's not like me at all, he's a whiny milquetoast who won't even have sex with a hooker he's hired. Although if he's really hot I could potentially see myself "in" him. I'll have to wait for the movie and hope he's played by the actor who's in Bertolucci's "the Dreamers" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."



there's no point in lying, i've met you dear wink

Lemonkid

Lemonkid

Canada
May 2003

JUL 19, 2004 04:18 PM

freckle said:

Lemonkid said:

freckle said:

Lemonkid said:
Deviant? He's a bloody picture of normality.. if he's deviant.. god knows what I am.



exactly. i think that's part of the reason the book became so popular. everyone sees it in themselves (or in someone they know), even if it is a bit naughty. and that's also part of the reason the book is hated.



Holden's not like me at all, he's a whiny milquetoast who won't even have sex with a hooker he's hired. Although if he's really hot I could potentially see myself "in" him. I'll have to wait for the movie and hope he's played by the actor who's in Bertolucci's "the Dreamers" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."



there's no point in lying, i've met you dear wink



I'm a whiny milquetoast?
frown

I bet Holden snores too.

Gitsie

Gitsie

I'm lost
June 2004

JUL 19, 2004 04:20 PM


there's no point in lying, i've met you dear wink


I'm a whiny milquetoast?
frown

I bet Holden snores too.


haha
smile

Lolita

Lolita

SUICIDEGIRL

Oregon, USA

JUL 19, 2004 04:57 PM

i loved the book, it captured the persona of the 'fucked up kid', I found the story interesting and engrossing.......
however.......holden? yeah, one fucked up soul, holden captures what every sociopath went through as a teen, as far as behaviors and thoughts. it captures the sociopath when he is still worthy of compassion,
and I have to ask, since people posting here actually read the book and I am interested.......do you think Holden was in love and/or had sexual feelings for his little sister? pages were dedicated to how she was ''perfection'' and he visited her in her bed before he left, salinger in my opinion alluded to him molesting her.
AT first I thought I was over analizing then I read Salingers short story ''bananafish''
***shudders***

googused

googused

Portland, OR
OLD SKOOL

JUL 19, 2004 05:52 PM

This is from the flap on my First (Book Club) Edition copy with the dust jacket and everything that I got for 5 bucks - unfortunately without the picture of Salinger on the back frown




The hero-narrator of The Catcher In The Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

The boy himself is at one too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing to say about Holden is that he was born into the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices - but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining tremendously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain an pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.



That's just about the best description of the book I ever heard.

Gitsie

Gitsie

I'm lost
June 2004

JUL 19, 2004 05:58 PM

Lolita said:
i loved the book, it captured the persona of the 'fucked up kid', I found the story interesting and engrossing.......
however.......holden? yeah, one fucked up soul, holden captures what every sociopath went through as a teen, as far as behaviors and thoughts. it captures the sociopath when he is still worthy of compassion,
and I have to ask, since people posting here actually read the book and I am interested.......do you think Holden was in love and/or had sexual feelings for his little sister? pages were dedicated to how she was ''perfection'' and he visited her in her bed before he left, salinger in my opinion alluded to him molesting her.
AT first I thought I was over analizing then I read Salingers short story ''bananafish''
***shudders***




that is very interesting i had never looked at it that way and im glad you brought it up.

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2

Next