JD Salinger

[lagilman]

On this day in 1986, we lost the crew --and the dream -- of Challenger.

Today we have lost J.D. Salinger, who has died at age 91 -- although some might say we lost him long before, to his own quirks and traumas. Loved or loathed, his work -- most famously Catcher in the Rye --changed the game in ways most writers only dream about.



(I loathed CitR, btw. Thought the writing was brilliant but so relentlessly negative and unlikeable that you took nothing away save a sense of grimy displeasure. I feel much the same way about Bret Easton Ellis, yes. Like HEAs, there's only so much dispirited self- and species-specific hatred I can handle before I go "enough already, I got it., thanks")

Comments

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Because I teach Catcher in the Rye in my graduate YA literature class, I have thought about Holden a lot. I first read Salinger in college, in the early 1960s, and I was blown away - found everything else by Salinger there was, and wrote a paper on him.

I read Holden again in my mid-thirties, and found him a smarmy, self-pitying wanker, and wanted to swat him upside the head and say, with Cher, "Snap out of it!"

In my 50s, when I was planning the YA lit course, I picked up Catcher again, to see where it led me. I was filled with pity and tenderness for Holden. He needed care, and a mom. I so wanted to take care of him.

There's not world enough and time to read everything, let alone reread everything. But I am fascinated with how my reactions changed over the decades. My students' reactions vary even more widely.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I first read him in 8th grade and had your mid-thirties reaction, but then I grew up in NYC and knew kids like him. Very boring.

Reread it again in my '40s and my reaction didn't change. Environment is everything, I suppose.

[barb-krasnoff.livejournal.com]

I also grew up in NYC, and went to a high school that was on the edge of a slum. I knew a lot of kids who were growing up in a nasty, dangerous environment (and school occasionally got dangerous as well), so my general attitude towards Holden was "You think you got problems?"

I was, I think, 13 or 14 when I read it.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I read Howl by Alan Ginsberg as a freshman. I hated it. I read it again as a Master's student. I loved it. I spoke to me. Go figure.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction in the same sequence for this one, too. But then I think Howl may last longer than Holden.