https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufz9cppGNGM
>>25005252It took him over a month to read Catcher in the Rye.Catcher in the Rye isn't English literature. It's American literature, btw.
>>25005252Doesn't he rape his sister, Phoebe?
He’s a child. Like 13 or 14. People read a whole damn book and they can’t even visualize the main character. He would be played by River Phoenix circa Stand by Me.Also he wears the hat turned around.
>>25005252Not liking normies does not mean you're a bad person
>>25005307I hate this meme
>>25005252Holden Caufield is a fucking teenager. He's 15. I feel like alot of people forget what it's like to be at that age.
>>25005252If Holden were real, this video would give him a mental breakdown.
He is a teenager who is struggling with becoming an adult. He feels like his childhood is slowly over and nothing feels like it did back then. This is a phase that most young people go through. And most look back at this phase and are ashamed of how negatively they viewed the world realizing now that you can still feel whimsy.
>>25006498>whimsyGay.
>>25006513ironically, this post is whimsical
>>25006498>you can still feel whimsy.Ok, how?
>>25005252So, Holden skips school for a few days, but he ends in a mental institution. This doesn't add up, something's sus.
>>25006035It's not a meme, it's been a topic in Salinger scholarship since at least the 1970s with James Bryan's essay The Psychological Structure of the Catcher in the Rye which argued the sublimation of Holden's incestuous desire for his sister is the core of the novel. I've seen the sexual undertones of the bedroom scene (which is what the anon in the original 'he rapes his sister Phoebe' thread focused on) come up repeatedly in modern discussions of the book:https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/object/ir:468https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00138380903180918https://books.google.com/books?id=3VUtAAAAQBAJ&q=Phoebe
>>25005252I applaud the people in that video for speaking their truth instead of being robots, but it does make me wonder if the human race is salvagable.
>>25005252He represents very succinctly the confusion, angst, turmoil, and arrogance that is inherent in the psyche of most thinking teenage boys, at least to some degree or another. If you read Catcher in the Rye as a teenager (as I did) then you will likely relate with Holden, either somewhat, or completely; some in spite his failings, and some because of his failings. I got a lot out of Catcher in The Rye at around 14 when I first read it, and again at around 17 IIRC. If I ever find my stack completed and nothing unread on my bookcase, I'll give it a re-read and see what I think of it, and what I think of Holden at age 25, I'm guessing I'll find him whiny, morally bankrupt, and pathetic. Overall in my memory it is a solid novel, neither the masterpiece that some say, nor the shocking, bad, morally repugnant novel that some others say. I'd for sure give a copy to my teenage son if I am blessed with one. Ultimately, it really isn’t worth the constant discussion in popular culture, forums, imageboards etc. I know it was controversial upon publication, it has the added Mark David Chapman element, The South Park episode, The Holden raped his sister meme I have seen posted on /lit/ for well over a decade; I also understand that a lot of Gen X’ers and Millennials had it assigned in High School in the States, so it has remained present in the Zeitgeist of the English-speaking world for one reason or another. But really, it just isn’t that interesting…
>>25006966>Speaking their truth is regurgitating the "white privileged young male = bad" narrative they've been fed since they were children.
>>25006943Based effortposter.Here's a (You).
>>25005252Need a qrd on secret mason symbolism in the CitR asap.Also what's with the>Jenny seldom drybusiness?Also: if a body meet soembody need a buddy cry?Also is the Phoebe business relevant to freemason child sacrifice ritual and what happened to little brother?Asking for a friend.
>>25006943This is up there with “Nick carraway is gay” for most demented, intentionally obtuse contrarian opinion that self-styled intellectuals proffer in order to smugly disorient actual discussion of a classic and turn it into a sociological discussion (their actual obsession) rather than a literary one. I hate faggots and women and what they’ve done to academia for this very reason.
>>25006943>https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/object/ir:468This doesnt raise the topic at all. It mentions phoebe once in passing. Why include it?Nor is there anything at the google books link to suggest it is part of the Salinger biography in question.
>>25005252Yeah, he's a pathological liar who's sinking into his delusions. You can like his attitude, but he's not a good guy.
>>25008520You’re an idiot
>>25008665You guys have /v/ tier level of discussion, you just use "idiot" instead of "retad", pathetic
>>25008671You’re talking about a 13 year old boy (fictional) as if he is real. As if a character in a story being “good” or “bad” matters at all.In short, you are an idiot.Enjoy your melty, midwit.
>>25008051I feel the same way. It was assigned reading when I was in eighth grade and yeah, it’s relatable and has some enjoyable parts but overall it’s mediocre. Everyone goes through that “shove the rules, shove your ideology, I’m so over and above all this crap” phase of despondence & disaffection at some point as an adolescent / young adult so the tone of the novel resonates well with western youth. At the same time it has a lot of stone dead boring parts and doesn’t make any grand conclusions or observations, it just kinda trails off and ends. Not that it needs a happy (or even definitive) ending but to go from a 6 to a 9/10 it should have been more direct in asking more provocative questions about teenage angst & disillusionment.
>>25005252When catcher in the rye was assigned I was in a bloomer mindset and resented how doomer it was. Little did I know.
am i the only one with the opinion that the dominant plot line is occult, has some significant symbolic component? Where the things untold are silently screaming. Pardon my ETL language, but as a post soviet citizen, i've been taught in school that mephistophel is a cruel joker, that there's a secret plot line behind every plot line, with utmost scams hidden in the plain sight so this story must be some sort of riddle with uncanny outcome.But instead the discussion here derails to> home alone: christmas in NY> i am 13 i am le sad> gotta kill phonies etc etcLike if every other one after reading this mandatory lit became whiny little bitch with sand in vagina, and every third one felt strongly the world would be less phony place if John Lennon was positively removed.
>>25005252he's the perfect image of a jaded cynical teen. maybe this was new in the 50s? (nah) Now at least, its hard to say he was some outrageous guy. no direction and support and all that, which is part and parcel with modernity, only he was self-conscious enough to realize it, but unfortunately unfit to remedy it (which is what the writing's for.) he's in a tough spot, he's not doing the right things, etc. So its easy to say he's shameful, and sure he is, but he's not some fundamentally corrupted, terrible guy. he's got the sense enough to reflect, which is more than many have; those who don't and don't jell with society are very dangerous. he's pitiful more than anything, and he's got potential if he could just turn his animosity into something creative. he's really a good kid, everything aside.in short, he's literally me.
