The reason people don't get why Catcher in the Rye is important

[Leslie]

Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

Mine must be broken :/

[Leslie]

Nobody can paint a phone booth reflection like Dan Gregory.

[Leslie]

Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Nobody can paint a phone booth reflection like Dan Gregory."
I will have to check him out. I can't recall the name of the one I was referring to, but I do remember that his stuff, af..."

Dan Gregory is a fictional character in Vonnegut's "Bluebeard".

[Leslie]

Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Nobody can paint a phone booth reflection like Dan Gregory."
I will have to check him out. I can't recall the name of the one I was referring to, but I ..."

It's not a well-known title, but it's a sentimental favorite given to me by a very dear friend and artist, and it's themes of value (of art and life and living) with Vonnegut's signature twisted outlook are great.

[Renee E]

This what you're looking for, Edward?

http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue...

[Leslie]

Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Nobody can paint a phone booth reflection like Dan Gregory."
I will have to check him out. I can't recall the name of the ..."

Not twisted in the "he's crazy" sense but in the sarcastically skewed/bent sense. He has a bite that I like.

[Papaphilly]

Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

No,

Mirrors show you the truth. Whether you can accept the truth is another matter...

[Papaphilly]

Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Edward wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Nobody can paint a phone booth reflection like Dan Gregory."
I will have to check him out. I can't recall the name of the ..."

Now Vonnegut I get. Bradbury also. Two of my all time writers. Vonnegut taught me to think and Bradbury taught me to dream.

[Karen]

Papaphilly wrote: "Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

No,

Mirrors show you the truth. Whether you can accept the truth is another matter..."

yes, that was the metaphor I meant in my post to Edward.

[Karen]

Edward wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

No,

Mirrors show you the truth. Whether you can accept the truth is another matter..."
Even if we're in the fun..."

Edward, you are especially light and funny most recently, keep it up!

[Papaphilly]

Edward wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

No,

Mirrors show you the truth. Whether you can accept the truth is another matter..."
Even if we're in the fun..."

Well... it depends if it shows you as a fat head or a pin head.

[Papaphilly]

Edward wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Edward wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Brooke wrote: "Mirrors always show you what you expect to see."

No,

Mirrors show you the truth. Whether you can accept the truth is another m..."

the mirror only reflects what is there, now the eye of the beholder....

[[deleted user]]

Nirvana? Aw, hell yes. <3

[Cosmic]

I think the Catcher in the Rye is important because it is about WW2. It was written in a style called Obscurantism:

(French: obscurantisme, from the Latin obscurans, "darkening") is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two common historical and intellectual denotations to Obscurantism: (1) deliberately restricting knowledge—opposition to the spread of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the public; and, (2) deliberate obscurity—an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness.[1][2]

I think people try reading it as a biography (and it can be read that way) and find it lacking. This is because the genius of the book is in the puns and intertextual references and allusions.

Many people think they are well read because they read a lot. But when it comes to Salinger he will teach you how to read and about WW2 at the same time.

The story is in the puns.

[Scott]

Lushr wrote: "Yes, when I read it (as a teen) I though... "Uh yeah... So what?" Everything in there seemed so obvious at the time.

But this is a time when teenagers and antisocial thoughts and being different a..."

For me it was a book that stayed with me for a long time after I finished it. Almost subtle, and nostalgic. I think reading it again in my 40's I took something different away from it. I love the book.

[Adrian]

Lushr wrote: "Yes, when I read it (as a teen) I though... "Uh yeah... So what?" Everything in there seemed so obvious at the time.

But this is a time when teenagers and antisocial thoughts and being different a..."

Contrary to your statement, I still found this book not only emotionally resonant but also relevant. There might be a lot of seemingly obvious statements contained in the book, but I think in its presentation all these things are brought to light and we can see with greater clarity the issues and feelings which Salinger was making statements about.

That said, I'm still considered a "teen" (haven't hit my 20's yet, so my age still ends in a "teen"), so maybe it's just that.

[[deleted user]]

Catcher isn't meant to be analyzed. It's meant to be read.

It's meant to be loved.

[Papaphilly]

Brooke wrote: "Catcher isn't meant to be analyzed. It's meant to be read.

It's meant to be loved."

Of all of the answers I have read, yours is by far the best. Sometimes I think we all forget that lesson.

[Cedricsmom]

I'm sure that would be Salinger's favorite comment.

[[deleted user]]

Thank you all.

[Cosmic]

Brooke wrote: "Catcher isn't meant to be analyzed. It's meant to be read.

It's meant to be loved."

Well i disagree with you. I think in the spirt of who Salinger was and what he created was art. To be art it should be digested and thought provoking. Just to come up with a quib answer like "It's meant to be loved." Proves to me that you are a lazy reader.

It took Salinger ten years to write the Catcher. I don't think you can really love with out wearing the book out reading it. The Velveteen RabbitI think if you read it ten times you would begin to understand what he was saying and ask yourself more questions.

Here is a quote by Erich Frommfrom the book The Forgotten Language

"If it is true that the ability to be puzzled isbtye beginning of wisdom, then this truth is a sad commentary on the wisdom of the modern world. Whatever the merits of our high degree of literary and universal education, we have lost the gift for being puzzled. Everything is supposed to be known --if not to ourselves then to some specialist whose business it is to know what we do not know. In fact, to be puzzled is embarrassing, a sign of intellectual inferiority. Even children are rarely surprised, or at least they try not to show that they are; and as we grow older we lose the ability to be surprised. To have the right qnswers seems all-important; to ask the right questions is considered insignificant by comparison."

Salinger gave the lady he was mentoring advice about writing. His advice was to write about what you are passionate about. What significant thing do you know about Salinger that makes him different than other writers? He was in WW2. What other writers that was in WW2 write about? How about Kurt Vonnegut and his book Slaughterhouse-Five. What other significant thing do you know about Salinger? That is probably different from most of your friends and yourself. That he went to an elite all boys military boarding school. He went to a school where they groom presidents and political leaders. What else do you know about Salinger? Thwt his mother was Irish and his father was Jewish. I believe his grandfather was a rabbi. And somehow in the course of events he ends up at a German concentration camp where Jews are intruded. Do the Jews that he helps go to America? Or Russia? Or Palestine? I don't know.

But because I do know a little bit about him I think that there is more.

He is not the first person to write an adult book using a YA platform or genre. Felix Salten Bambi Au: Bambi Au. Frank L Baum did it in his Wizard of Oz series. The Adventures Of Pinocchio, Animal Farm, and Don Quixote are a few more examples.

So I think questioning is honoring the work and the artist.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...