Saturday, January 30, 2010

Catcher in the Rye

Most people know J.D. Salinger died this week.  I actually thought he was already dead.  I can't get over the fact that I am getting old and all these old people I knew of or admired - who were old when I was young - are still alive, or just now dying.  (Gosh.  I'm hoping I don't have to live as long as they did.)
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Anyway.  Salinger was a huge influence in my life - well, not him, but Holden Caulfield.  I'm of a generation you realize.  Holden and Mr. Jones - the thin man (Dylan), gave me the courage to leave an abusive home during senior year and finish school on my own. 
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I hadn't realized Salinger was a recluse, and that he may have been writing - relieved not to be published.  "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure." - Source
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I like that.  Maybe I'm kind of like him.
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Yeah. 
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J.D. Salinger is dead.
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5 comments:

  1. Maria1:48 AM

    "He was the absolutely sinless, innocent Lamb of God and He suffered for other people’s sins"--Hardon SJ on Suffering
    Oh you are Holden. Do you remember at the end in the park, the rain... "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

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  2. Tc9:39 AM

    "Franny and Zooey" is the best piece of fiction, ever, I think.

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  3. Terry Nelson9:55 AM

    Maria - I like that.

    Tom - I appreciated Franny and Zooey almost as well.

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  4. Anonymous12:43 PM

    Definitely know how you feel, though not a Salinger fan. Besides J.D., we lost the musical Kate McGarrigle, the beautiful Jean Simmons, and the handsome Pernell Roberts, who played my favourite, Adam, on "Bonanza"... Not cultural titans like Salinger, admittedly, but nevertheless a part of the landscape of our youth. They will all be missed. And I just read that author Ralph McInerny has died as well. A lot of notable deaths this month, sad to say.

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  5. Maria2:38 PM

    Oh Jean Simmons....Don't you think "ladies" should make a comeback??

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