/lit/ - Literature

I liked it too but
this is /lit/:

>fuckin angsty teenager
>Holden raped Phoebe huehuehue

>>10395601
Holden isn't nearly as insufferable as people claim, and he's more often than not flanderized in his hypocrisy.

>>10395612
I never really though of Holden being a loser fag, just like a pretty normal person. Like he's always just aimlessly moving through life with no real direction other than the fear of having to grow up and face reality. I think its kinda neat and somewhat relatable to everyone in life

>>10395601
The strange thing about this book is the extreme opinions it elicits. Everyone I know who has read it either swears by it as a gift from God or degrades it as a symptom of everything wrong with this world. Obviously there have been exceptions of course, but it /reallymakesyouthink/. Holden may be a litmus test for two different types of people. The other strange thing is that there are plenty of people I've met who love this book (I love it too) who I feel I have little in common with, while there are plenty I know who hate this book which I get along fine with. The age you read it IS a factor, but not as much as you might think, at least as far as I can tell. What really ticks people off is when they have to read it in school. Further proof that forcing literature, even entry-level stuff like this, on schoolkids, can only be detrimental to their interest in reading. So many people I know who used to love reading but school drained that love out of them. But anyways.

Just read it for the first time about a month ago.
I didn't really like it but I also didn't hate it.
I see the literary value though, definitely.

In the 50's everyone was so focused on doing the whole nuclear family thing and you were supposed to go to school and become a businessperson or have a family, so I think the counter culture thing was really relevant at the time. Nowadays, people usually embrace the counterculture or differing ideas so maybe kids these days (like me, age 24) don't get the same meaning from it.

I'm sure a few struggling people, especially back then, read it and realized maybe they weren't as alone as they might've thought, which is nice. But, that being said, I didn't really relate to Holden very much. Everyone feels isolation and aimlessness, but I never felt like I hated society for it.

Also Holden is major fucking hypocrite, pretty much everything he says he hates about other people, he did at one point In the book. Just something that bothered me about his character.

Loved by brainlets
Loathed by pseuds
Appreciated by patricians

>>10395690
Accurate

>>10395679 (me)
>>10395690
Im a patrician :'D

>>10395601
It does a fantastic job capturing the kind of anxiety and disgust that comes with growing up. I don't think it's really an enjoyable read, but it's an important work, and extremely relatable for any teenager coming to terms with the way the world is

>>10395601
I just finished reading this a couple of minutes ago. Am I wrong to say at the end of it I felt like I wasn't appreciating life as much as I should have?

>>10395601

>>10395601
Leddit ;)

>>10395601
it was so boring I didn't even bother finishing it, we get i you're better than everyone, honestly fuck John Lennon.

>>10395605
>fuckin angsty teenager
But that's what it is, Jewish propaganda aimed at the self-indulgent angsty teen, that's why you're forced to read it when you're 16.

>>10396708
salinger wasn't jewish. his mother was a goy

>>10395601
Nothing remarkable, I just don't understand that a fully grown man wrote it.

>>10396733
Salinger was jewish, stop lying.

>>10395601
For me, its The Catcher in the Rye. The greatest book ever written.

What's with the rape thing?
It's a pretty comfy book by the way, one of the first books I read and finished on my own initiative in high school.

>Holden was a meme all along

>>10396312
What? I didn't get that impression at all

>>10396708
it is that, but that all /lit/ complains about; shit Salinger wanted you to be pissed off at Holden

>>10395601
It's good. Nothing comes close to its biting accuracy.

>>10396840
So a jew created a white character that was despicable?

>>10396856
>>10396708
>le jewish boogeyman

>>10396708
What is your worldbuilding canon for developing minds in an acceptable fashion, hmmm?

>>10396871
It's very common for jews to do subversive shit under the guise of whiteness.

>>10396773
You aren't jewish unless your mother was.

>>10396889
whites do just as much subversive shit. so do blacks, asians, etc.

>>10396890
It's genetic and doesn't disappear when a jewish man mates with a non-jewish woman.

read it at 21, i was crying during parts of it (when holden is talking about his brother's funeral [i think it was his brother], when his sister is walking at a distance and holden is following her). identified heavily with his alienation and feeling like the outsider, struggling to deal with other people. also my sisters were crossing that threshold from childhood into adolescence so i was feeling a little weepy about time moving forward. holden has that kind of peter pan feeling in that he wants to preserve some innocence in his life, and for him that's his sister.

>>10396918
genetics have little to do with anything, jews come from many different genetic backgrounds all over the world. what matters is whether or not you are an integral part of the jewish community/culture

>>10396945
Jewishness is genetic first and foremost, stop trying to deceive the goyim, rabbi.

>>10396836
Learn to read.

>>10396972
you have no arguments

>>10396906

>>10396836
It's an ebin meme /lit/ likes to throw around whenever TCitR thread pops up, don't pay attention

>>10397041
Next you'll say Holden's dad didn't rape him on page one.

>>10397059

>>10397289

I relate to Holden a lot. Still one of my favourite novels.

>>10395601
Really good book for teenage boys, wouldn't recommend it to an adult at all though as Holden isn't easily empathized with outside of the years between 13-21

>>10395601
Holden was an undiagnosed autist, which is why he talks out loud to his dead brother (Ch.14) and why he's irrationally loud in conversation about the past, like in Ch. 19 with Old Luce. This would also explain the repetitive use of his hunting hat and why he was so shit at school. Given Holden's past of being sexually abused ("That kind of stuff's happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can't stand it.") it's possible that he's abused Phoebe in the past, but I don't think he did during the course of the book. The title is derived from a sexual poem by Robert Burns which Holden misremembers. On top of that, Holden's obsession with saving children and being the only adult around convinces me that he's a bit of a creep.

>>10397569
he could just be someone who feels the need to protect others and is messed up, its interesting that you made him a villain like that despite every other person in the book including his teachers, parents, lovers and friends being horrible towards him

>>10397583
Not a villain necessarily. I took Holden, at least in part, as representing post-war America's period of mental rape and subsequent isolation of the individual. Holden is surrounded by a world of phonies, whom he believes haven't as pure an intention as him, but his suggested sexual abuse of Phoebe makes it clear that he's one too. Because of his mental issues, he's literally handicapped by his past trauma, and thus unable to cope with the present. What's important is that other characters are just as lost and degenerate as he is. I think this came from Salinger's own experience in war.

>>10397569
>"That kind of stuff's happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can't stand it."

I think he's just over-sexual and misunderstands the intentions of others.

>>10395601
Pic related

Goddamnit, I wish Holden has succeeded in killing himself. I have never met someone with so little awareness of anything at all.

>>10397790
this board has a really odd propensity towards encouraging others to murder themselves for the smallest slights and social faux pas'

>>10397831
It's because they recognize their own weaknesses in others and it drives them crazy.

>>10397694
>a world of phonies, whom he believes haven't as pure an intention as him

I think he doesn't understand why the world is so cold. He's so sarcastic and self-absorbed that he doesn't realize he appears just as heartless as everyone does to him. He's neglected, and naive to a fault, and doesn't recognize genuine care and concern.

All this book asks of the reader is a small amount of empathy to relate to a down-on-his-luck youth but everybody is too stupid and autistic to do even that

>>10397846
>the projection meme again

Some people are just cruel.

>>10395601

I read it ten years ago so I don't remember much but I genuinely wish people were more like Holden. Life is full of people so eager to please, so scared of expressing themselves for fear of rejection. Holden is full of angst and mistakes. I'm sure he grew into an interesting dude. I wish people would be willing to accept making mistakes but right now mistakes are anathema to an entire generation.

>>10395601
It was hard to read because each sentence started and stopped with no flow into the next.

it alright

I feel like this book succeeds or fails depending on how you acted when growing up. For me and a bunch of other angsty kids, Catcher in the Rye is a godsend. It's a bitchfest to most other people.

I'm half-way in it. So far I like the writing. I have mixed feelings about Holden. I can relate but also think he is unlikeable.