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/lit/ - Literature

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2236986 No.2236986 [Reply] [Original]

/lit/, I have read half of "The Catcher in the Rye." It is bullshit, /lit/. But I was promised a fucking masterpiece. Tell me, does it make sense to read on this shit? Is there at least something interesting that will appear later in the book or the whole book is just titanic thinking about life of the dull schoolboy?

>> No.2236989

How did you not read this for middle school

>> No.2236991

>>2236989
Probably because he's a bloody foreigner.

>> No.2236992

>>2236991
this

>> No.2236997

>>2236992
>>2236991
Then how did he not read this in middle school

>> No.2236998
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2236998

>>2236997
We don't read American literature in our country. So, anybody is going to answer my question? Tell me your opinion on the book.

>> No.2237000

>>2236998
You read and write English well enough. Just finish the book and read it a second time.

If you are smarter than a child in middle school you will figure it out.

>> No.2237430

>>2236989
I'm an American and they never made me read this book anywhere throughout school.

Thank god my teachers actually had some fucking taste when they came up with our reading lists. Catcher is a fucking terrible book.

>> No.2237436

>>2236998

It's shite mate, but it's shite that teenage student can sometimes relate to I guess. Just know that it is by no means the epitome of american lit okay?

>> No.2237452

> Tell me, does it make sense to read on this shit?
If you are 15 or younger yes, if you are older no.

>> No.2237457

Wait a minute, I'm from Ireland so I didn't know about this, but do Americans really read that book in school? The fuck? We read "To Kill a Mockingbird" last year and "Private Peaceful" the year before that and they were both great books. Why would any teacher make their students read shit like Catcher in the Rye?

>> No.2237460

I'm from England, never had to read it but I read it by choice.

I enjoyed it, enough to read twice.

>> No.2237462

god what pretentious useless cunts you all are

>> No.2237504

i read it a few months ago because i too was under the impression that it was some work of art. putting aside that it was the "maidenhead" of its kind, and looking at it for just what it is, i dont feel the book had a great deal to "say"; but still, after having finished it and thought about it for a while, i came to enjoy it. i will bulletpoint my opinions for simplicity...
thought while reading it (specificly, less than half way through the text):
- irksome narrator of little value
- the narrators reflections felt increasing banal and wholly tedious to the point of, once again, thinking he had very little to say.
- very insensitive to the world outside the narrator's self (by which i mean that, instead of experiencing a world through a filtered perspective, i felt as though i was being led through a narrow corridor littered with shit paintings and not being allowed to peer through any doors along the way).

after having read it (and somewhat towards the end)
- i enjoyed the nostalgia within the novel. this may be more personal because i like the alotted space of dorms and adolescent disconcern.
- i feel that the narrow scope through which i was fed the narrators perspective, as well as salinger's almost deceivingly immersive narration almost imbued me with the novel
-lastly, salinger's subtlety... this is, of course, a single episode of some silly twat's life. whereas holden, within the plot, does not develop (youre right... nothing really happens), i feel as the holden, in the retelling of his stroy, does grow. and what i truly appreciate is the subtle ways in which this was shown nearing the end of the novel.

>> No.2237522

>>2237462
>BAWWWW IM 2 STOOPID TO REED CHILDRENS BOOKS ON MY OWN! BAWWWWW

Grow up.

>> No.2237528

>>2237522
that wasn't the op
somebody else thinks you're pretentious cunts because he detects overcompensation
if it wasn't a standard middle-school book, none of you would be shitting on it (those of you that would have bothered to read it anyway)
posturing cunts
yes of course, i know "welcome to /lit/"

>> No.2237538

it's babby's first anti-establishment novel so people who read it think that it's some great experience. OH MAH GAWD AN ANGSTY TEEN BITCHING ABOUT THE WORLD, I WAS ONCE AN ANGSTY TEEN WHO BITCHED A LOT, I RELATE TO THIS BOOK

in reality the character is one dimensional and stale, he has no compelling relationships with other characters, the plot doesn't advance, and you're left with two hundred pages of a teenager bitching about society

>> No.2237544

nine stories is better, franny and zooey too probably

bottom line is even if you hate this don't give up on salinger altogether

>> No.2238127

I think that to a large extent it comes down to whether you can relate to Holden or not. I found I did, and enjoyed the book accordingly.

>> No.2238524

The only good thing about this book is that it is a fairly well-calibrated douchecunt detector.

That aside, this is one of the few books that I feel justified in burning on sight (given that there are no douchecunts in need of detecting).

>> No.2238535
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2238535

His brother died and he got ambiguously raped, and so he draws away from this by kind of focusing on other things and being unable to come to terms with it. The whole thing is very Freudian.

>> No.2238537

Salinger deserves praise because its not a book a lesser author could come close to writing as well.
That being said, the reason why I think people don't enjoy it so much is because there wasn't enough humor.
Think about Kafka without the humor. Nobody would read it.

>> No.2238543

>>2238537
There is tons of humour in Catcher. Every page, just about.

>> No.2238550

At my high school they teach Shakespeare like he was fucking Jesus reborn. they do the same thing Salinger. Vastly overrated in the sense that all our teachers are obligated to teach it as if it's amazing.

>> No.2238552

>>2238537
How is Kafka humorous?

>> No.2238556

>>2238543
Yea I know what you mean, but that cynicism falls in line with his character.
I should have added that it wasn't the type of humor I meant.

>> No.2238559

>>2238552
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:6GAyucjiDnsJ:harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazin
e-1998-07-0059612.pdf+kafka+humourous+dfw&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjjN0p5LilrC
BRRDXAb0J2oxL7bj8yuTne3ulkBZjJ7Raf9IfGZhramffLMejxD6tq4DvuRGPHHRHp5CiomKgVknF7e9vS2qfl7Q6tkpxBP_RoRf
W5v-zAZ8HnnJcJrHtkbVKtb&sig=AHIEtbS1UWS32OBOQNmF_kl79bOiLJvMFA&pli=1

>> No.2238563

Hey OP, if you don't like Catcher in the Rye, DO NOT read The Great Gatsby!

>> No.2238575

>>2238552

In "The Metamorphosis," for example, the situations where Gregor is getting chased around the house and when other just flat out wacky shit happens, yeah, that's supposed to be humor.

As for OP/thread topic, I never read Catcher in school. I was in college prep classes and it was a book read in the standard English classes in my high school, but not college prep. Instead we read "The Good Earth," a lot of Shakespeare, and some other international lit that year. The following year, my junior year, we focused exclusively on American lit so I guess it was just how the teachers structured the curriculum? My HS was part of a K-12 with less than 400 students in the HS and we had four English teachers, one for each grade in HS so it was easy for them to coordinate lesson plans across all four years for both "tracks" of students--college prep and non college prep.

So yes, it is entirely possible to go to school in America and never read Catcher. I think we read two or three books by Steinbeck, though.

>> No.2238582

ITT:
>Herp derp, I can't relate to this character. I wish he was likeable like Jon Snow
>Derr herr, I'm too thick to see past the unreliable narrator's bullshitting
>Herpinderp, why can't all books be straightforward and exciting like Game of Thrones???

>> No.2238612

it's a light read, and it's actually quite enjoyable in my opinion (never read it for school, but I got around to it about 6 months ago. But who the fuck told you it's a masterpiece?

>> No.2238621

I was just talking about this on livejournal - why is it that people can only relate to this book by assuming that the narrator is intended to be admirable? Like, they see that he's kind of full of shit, and then they immediately go from that to assume that it's a bad book. It's a good book because he's full of shit and because he's telling you about everything in his own words. It's interesting. It's stimulating. Why is it a terrible book just because you dislike the narrator

dumb

>> No.2238641

>>2238621

this right here sums it up

i rarely say this shit but you're a plebeian if you don't get this concept and hate the book as a result

i could understand disliking the prose/plot but if you just think the narrator is a big faggot and that makes the book bad you should be getting face fucked by 15 nigger cocks like the stupid porn whore you were born to be

>> No.2238647

like some people have said if you read it as the confused alienated adolescent that you most likely were it would probably have a much different effect on you

like others have said, if you are one of the people who dislikes the book because the narrator is bitchy or something then you can go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut

jus sayin

>> No.2238656

It's american lit.
Fast food for readers.
Story time with your favorite uncle.

If you want boredom or academics read english lit.

>> No.2238658

>>2238641

there's a thing called nuance that the best authors use to make a point. catcher in the rye doesn't have it. instead it beats the reader over the head with its counter-culture. you can read any one of a million counter-culture books that require interpretation, or you can read catcher in the rye and be subjected to holden complaining like an attention whore on youtube. it. is. not. worth. the. bullshit.

>> No.2238661

>>2238658

the point of the book is not to spew counter-culture

how can you even think this

>> No.2238669

>>2238661

LOL. sure. holden calling out every single fucking thing he sees as "phony" is in no way counter-culture. shouldn't you be going to bed soon? it's a school night.

>> No.2238675

>>2238658
counter culture? really?

>> No.2238680

>>2238669
there's a big difference between a counterculture like hippies and goths and one alienated nigga like holden caulfield, to be a counterculture there would have to be a group of niggas walking around new york in goofy hats and houndstooth jackets calling people phonies, the nigga is socially alienated, big difference

>> No.2238684

>>2238658
>>2238661
>>2238669
>>2238675
>>2238680
no

>> No.2238685

At the peak of his stress he almost gave up on his future.
Then after being molested he conforms to expectations.

or something.

It's a mess.

>> No.2238686

>>2238684
elaborate nigga

>> No.2238689

>>2238686
i don't know, it's a pretty dumb conversation. one dude is pretty obviously reading it in a dumb way. more importantly both dudes have some super weird understanding of 'counter-culture', one guy seems to treat it almost totemically and the other guy thinks that you can only have a counter-culture if people dress weird

>> No.2238696

I don't understand how you can bash The Catcher in the Rye. Really, I'm from a foreign country and god damn it do I love this book. I read it in english for the full experience, and I've read it about 4 times throughout the years. Would anyone care to explain to me the motives to hate this book?

>> No.2238698

>>2238696
the most common reason seems to be this: people see holden as self-centered, selfish, and believing in a lot of bullshit. they dislike him and this somehow translates into hating the book.

>> No.2238705

>>2238582
No one said anything about a Game of thrones or jon snow. But that being said, it is a great book and jon snow is my favorite character in that great book.

>> No.2238712

>>2238698
Oh boy, and I tought this book was self-explanatory. Well, it doesn't change my read so it's ok. I just wish people could focus less on Holden being a bitch and try to understand his mindset.

>> No.2238713

>>2238552
Also see his stories "In the Penal Colony" and "The Hunger Artist." The former is about an officer who imposes a draconian penalty on purported criminals; the latter is about a performance artist who starves himself for a living.

The humor in the second premise is especially palpable since the hunger artist is paid to do something that the poor are forced to do by their circumstances. An arrangement that links hunger to employment is so absurd that it invites us to laugh at the protagonist's starvation--something we would never otherwise do. Kafka can be hit or miss, but when he hits he's funny and freaking brilliant.

>> No.2238727

>>2238689
i agree that one dude is reading it in a dumb way, and i'm the dressing funny guy but i think i just explained myself shittily, i wasn't really trying to say clothing is what defines a cultural group, i was trying to focus on the hat mostly, if you've read the book you'd know that holden wears the hat to distinguish himself and give him some sort of identity (that's what i got from it anyway), and counter culture is defined as a group, i would guess that if there was a group of people who walked around wearing red hunting hats holden wouldn't be for that shit

so yeah

>> No.2238731

>>2238727
i still think your understanding of subcultural groupings is kind of un-nuanced but yeah you're definitely not as dumb as the other dude, he is the one i was mostly reacting to

you're okay, man