/lit/ - Literature

>>13487707
depression

phonies....

>>13487720
The big twist is that Holden's the biggest phony of them all

>>13487720
Surely you mean ponies

>>13487720
>>13487741
what even is a phony

>>13487756
one who is phony

>>13487756
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNGZo5gn_tc

>>13487741
It's not a twist; it's a running joke through the novel that he keeps doing the same things he complains about other people doing; e.g. near the beginning he complains about Ackley always barging into his room and bothering him, then after Stradlater beats him up, he barges into Ackley's room and bothers him, etc.

>>13487791
Yeah not a narrative twist, more like you as a reader realizing it after a while, that kind of twist.

I really loved it as a teen though, that shit really touched me.

>>13487808
I didn't care for it or understand it when I was a teenager; it only affected me when I reread it at 29.

Why is this shit required reading?

>>13487887
Burgers love it because it's the only good American novel of the century

And it really is pretty good.

>>13487887
it's YA tier trash just like Vonnegut

I really felt for Holden until he raped his sister phoebe. How are you meant to relate to that?

>>13487923
I loved the part where he beat up those thugs in the subway, that basically made up for the rape thing

>>13487887
It's shocking language

The best part is wondering whether he'll actually call Jane Gallagher at some point. How many times does he think about doing it and then decide he doesn't feel like it?

>>13487707
Cringe. But a good kind!

The part where Holden tried to found a neo fascist city state on the Croatian coastline was a little excessive, but besides that it’s a fun ride

>>13487975
It's a very relatable feel

>>13488026
>on the Croatian coastline
It's the Cuban coastline you fucking pleb, fuck off with your fanfiction if you haven't even read the book

>>13488042

>he doesn’t know Holden grows up to be Gabriel D’Annunzio

Keep larping

A repressed homosexual who never comes out of the closet.

>>13487887
Idk it’s pretty good. The writing is interesting and Holden is an interesting train wreck of a character

>>13487752

>>13488401
barney fag

>>13487707
It's a normies take on depression. Honestly so many books take on the idea of an insane protag but most are just "insane" protags.

>>13488401
KILL YOURSELF JUSTPASSINGTHROUGH (BAN-EVADING ARGENTINIAN (Barneyfag)).
I'M NOT EVEN JOKING, I WANT TO SMASH YOUR FUCKING HEAD RIGHT OPEN SO THAT NOTHING REMAINS OF IT AND I DON"T HAVE TO LIVE WITH YOUR EXISTENCE, YOU WASTE OF HUMAN FLESH. IF I KILLED YOU TOMORROW, THEN THAT WOULD BE ALL THAT WOULD SATISFY ME BEFORE MY EVENTUAL DEATH. NOTHING I WANT TO SEE MORE THAN ME CRUSHING YOUR FUCKING SKULL, TEARING YOUR FUCKING EYES, BEATING YOU UNTIL YOU'RE A LIFELESS FUCKING CARCASS, AND THEN GUTTING, DISMEMBERING AND GRINDING YOU UP UNTIL I KNOW FOR SURE THAT THE WORLD IS FREED FROM YOUR EVIL, YOU FUCKING WASTE OF LIFE, YOU FUCKING DEGENERATE SUBHUMAN, COLLECTIVE OF THE WORST FUCKING SCUM ON THE PLANET

>>13488511
barneyfag...

>>13488063
not to nitpick but that was a proto-fascist state, not a neo one

>>13487887
It was edgy at the time.

>>13487707
depends how old you are:

12-16: you'll be in for a serious read where you really identify with Holden
16-20: you'll hate the book because you think Holden is a whiny loser
24+: you'll find the book, namely Holden, to be hilarious and endearing and you'll sympathize with him without judgment because for the most part he's right about things.

t. read it at all stages.

>>13488736
that's accurate with some years +/- maybe, but it's pretty much my experience, too

>>13487752
Neigh

>>13488775
Based

>>13488775
Hang yourself shill
https://derpibooru.org/1274920

really really great book. not sure when the catcher in the rye backlash started but my guess would be the 1990s and anyways it's wrong.

i wonder what this book is like in translation since it relies so heavily on slang

>tfw no imouto

>>13487975
She cucked him, right?

>>13489025
she goes out on a date with stradlater and it's implied he bones her in the coaches car

>>13488968
Did he actually rape his sister? Haven't read the book yet

>>13489331
No

> reading it at 16
>"This guy gets it!"

>reading it at 30
>"This poor kid"

>>13489331
yes

>>13488968
>imouto
would prefer a petite soeur

>>13489307
It’s not implied, Holden is just worried about it. Very relatable and well-written experience most guys have gone through.

>>13489331

As someone else pointed out, he does behave somewhat “unbrotherly” to her by being touchy. Make sure you include that in your book report. Teachers want to read all about it

>>13488736
posturing phony. You don't have any real convictions.

>>13487741
he's anti-phony

>>13487756
You're a phony. So is OP. Everyone's a phony except for me and Mark Chapman.

>>13487707
PARADISE WEENIES

WEENIES FROM PARADISE!

It'll make you goddam puke. I'm not kidding. I read the goddam book all the way through and it felt like the phoniest thing ever written. Old Holden is a lousy phony if I ever did see one. No kidding. I read the whole goddam thing though. I'm a madman.

>>13487707
A distressful read since the author's ptsd, pessimism, and dread for the future comes through his teenage protagonist but without spoiling it for you, incredibly beautiful and hopeful.

>>13487920
Not at all like vonegut. Even nabokav praised it, and was influenced by it. Are you smarter than nabokav?

>tfw no gf

>>13488499
Salinger ain't a normie. He is a little, but the cool normie, like pynchon or dickens

a book

>>13490854
why post Mr. I-will-destroy-Europe

>the awful sphagetti spilling conversation holden has with luce in the bar
Made me cringe irl. Why did he suddenly want to be a pervert and kept pushing luce's buttons

>>13488736
agree until 24+, he's not supposed to be right. He's supposed to be a hurt little kid. As adults, we should recognize that, and as you say, sympathize with him, but his angsty judgments of the world aren't what salinger was pushing.

He's really not right about things. That's what's funny about it. He's hypocritical in thinking that he's some unique person able to recognize the value of naivete. In truth, most of the adults in the story understand this and see Holden for what he truly his, which is a young boy who's had just a bit too much tragedy surround him.

>Holden had several gfs
WTF suddenly not relatable anymore

expect to cry in the last 20 pages when holden is with phoebe

p.s - read it with the knowledge that salinger wrote later that holden died in the war

>>13491159
yeah the part where he's "necking it" with Sally destroyed my suspension of disbelief.

>>13491258
When did Salinger write that he died in the war?

>>13487923
When I read it, I honestly bought the meme of the rape, and I was expecting it all throughout the end of the book.

>>13490175
>>13489307
Yep that was very very relatable

>>13490213
>except for me and Mark Chapman.

Fucking Yoko Ono. The man made a mistake, he was sick, and he spent 40 years in prison now. Fucking hippie scum, talking about being all about peace, love, harmony and forgiveness, but not acting on it.

Just finished my master's in literature at a university in a foreign country. No plans for the future. What am I in for?

>>13487887
trash i cant see why its so revered

>>13492122
I like it. And really loved it as a teen. It's a good read.

The reason it's so revered is that American literature is a wasteland. Especially that period.

>>13491439

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/09/07/discovering-j-d-salingers-lost-stories/

>"Some stories—such as “I’m Crazy” and “Slight Rebellion Off Madison”—are understandably not collected because they were later reworked as scenes in The Catcher in the Rye. While others, written before Catcher, reveal what happened to Holden Caulfield in the years since he was expelled from Pencey Prep. In “The Last Day of the Last Furlough,” Vincent Caulfield reveals that Holden, now a soldier in World War II, has been reported as missing in action. And in “This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise,” published a year later in 1945, Vincent is still haunted by the news. “Missing, missing, missing. Lies!” he wails. “I’m being lied to. He’s never been missing before. He’s one of the least missing boys in the world.”"

so he says missing, but going missing in the war = dead

>>13490987
Nice kc gif you have there

>>13488102
The girls at my uni do this all the time, try to psychoanalyse everyone into being a repressed homosexual. The worst part is that they think they're being prfound and unique.

>>13490835
>pynchon
>normie
Wtf

>>13487707
A waste of your time.

>>13492128
>American literature is a wasteland.
Been 400 years max and we blow most countries out of the water

Op here just finished it. Pretty good.

>>13492639
The book took place after the war though. I don't feel as if the short stories he wrote before catcher in the rye really apply since they would've had to take place at a completely different time period.