>>25256165
When I was assigned this in highschool, I recall thinking "Christ, what a whiny pussy. I could kick his ass."

Angst is good, you just have to use it productively. The thing about teenage angst is that it's mostly impotent - teens have no power or influence and are still relatively helpless (outside of raw violence). You're 27 now. You can use your angst as fuel to actually accomplish things you set your mind to.

It depends on what parts of him you relate to. Normal people will disagree, but anyone with actual experience with mental illness or trauma will immediately recognize that Holden is just a kind boy unable to reconcile reality with morality. He is hypocritical, but it's hard to deny that he does have a level of clarity and concern that extend beyond his own lack of self-awareness. His concerns about the ducks, for example, show how much he cares about the things that we normally ignore and offer no sympathy towards.

I am 30 and haven't stopped relating to him either, although his tone gets more grating as you age. I read Franny & Zooey a few years ago and couldn't stop because Franny was probably the only time I'd seen my exact malaise depicted with level-headed maturity and logic. My opinion is that people either choose to "grow up" when they feel that adulthood's cruelty is a worthy price to pay for the benefits they get (family, success, sex, fame). Which means that only people with mental illness or extremely stubborn personalities continue to see and complain about the injustices around them, since they either lack the flexibility to willfully ignore those things or the ability to enjoy the rewards of compromising.

>>25256165
>gets bullied by a hooker
lol fag

>>25256165
The book is about not having a fully developed frontal lobe.
It's fine to enjoy the book and recognize your younger self in him after adolescence, however you really ought not to identify with him after about 20.

>>25256289
I would pay for a hooker to bully me.

>>25256165
I don’t even relate to the Underground Man anymore. It’s true that after a certain point you might become someone (or some thing) they don’t write books about.

>>25256165
I couldn't get over the fact he hated movies. It made me unable to relate from the get go. Pretentious little twat. I'd pay top dollar to kick Holden's twink ass.

>>25256165
Yes. Everyone has a child at their core, it never goes away you just spend your adult life suppressing it and adopting the outward signs of adulthood that would impress a child -- a child's version of an adult. You will relate to it when you are 70

>is being a stunted manchild normal
these days? sure, why not

>>25256165
Do we need to contact the authorities about your sister?

>every adult agrees that thinking and acting like you did as a kid is cringe
>every adult reminisces fondly about their youth and seems to think that adulthood sucks in comparison
What causes this?

>>25256638
Lel came to say this

File: Unknown-1.png (1.41 MB, 1920x1280)

1.41 MB PNG

I never stopped being an angsty teen and I never will stop. The world is obviously niggerhell and people are obviously fucked in the head. Its always been like this and it always will be.
But as >>25256180 said its your duty to do something with that energy. Save a kitten. Feed a hobo. Study hard and become a brain surgeon. You know what has to be done.

>>25256639
The cringe is one of the reasons it's impossible to go back, even if one wishes to.

>>25256180
>>25256939
But I hate humanity and I want people to die. I also hate studying and I enjoy being stupid. Is there any hope for me?

>>25256963
>But I hate humanity and I want people to die.
Go work for the RNC

>>25256963
Do you hate humanity, or do you hate individual people? The former is cruel, the latter are not. The solution for hate towards humanity is to break down humanity to the smallest unit possible (one person) and see if you still hate it. Humanity, as a group of faceless individuals, is defined by its flaws and extremes. An individual person is textured and has positives that can counterbalance the negatives. From there, you can work up towards the larger group and see where your distaste lies. You might hate the family unit, the hierarchy of workplaces, or society. You might hate liars, breeders, or the rich. Wherever the hate returns, that's the level of society you should direct your unrest.

You cannot hate humanity because you are humanity, and attempting to hate it implies that you are separate, unique, and removed from the whole. You already know that Salinger understands you, so you cannot believe you are unique. Receding into solipsism won't solve anything, because humanity will exist no matter how hard you close your eyes (you are human after all). If you try to fight people for being members of humanity, you only prove your own hypocritical role as a fellow member, because you are perpetuating humanity's violence against individual humans.

>>25257102
I hate most individuals for a variety of reasons. Usually the reasons are petty and instinctive. And these are the people I know. I assume I'd hate people I don't know even worse, as I avoided them in the first place.

are you sure you're relating to him you could be relating to the book glamorizing him

>>25256963
>Is there any hope for me?
That depends, are you 13 or are you 30?

>>25256963
https://fedsoc.org/jobs/job-openings