You know, Cainad, Salinger was a fucking jackass.

[Salty]

Not because of Catcher in the Rye, though I loathed that book. I may have judged it in error anyway. I was a lot dumber when I read it, and perhaps I found it so dull only because so many people had coveted it before me and its themes were too imprinted into society for me to see it as anything but a statement of the obvious. At the time of it's publication I'm sure it was incendiary. Also, I may just have horrible taste.*

No. His failure had little to do with his work. His was a social problem, shared, no doubt, by others who just happened upon concentration camps or witnessed similar horrors. You get the bad taste of humanity in your mouth, nothing really washes it away for good.

He did what so many like him have done: He Sought. He sought and sought. That fucker looked everywhere. He seemed to have rejected Dear Sweet Jesus right away, and I can't reall blame him for that.

Wikipedia:

After abandoning Kriya yoga, Salinger tried Dianetics (the forerunner of Scientology), even meeting its founder L. Ron Hubbard, but according to Claire he was quickly disenchanted with it.[70][71] This was followed by adherence to a number of spiritual, medical, and nutritional belief systems including Christian Science, homeopathy, acupuncture, macrobiotics, the teachings of Edgar Cayce, fasting, vomiting to remove impurities, megadoses of Vitamin C, urine therapy, "speaking in tongues" (or Charismatic glossolalia), and sitting in a Reichian "orgone box" to bathe in "orgone energy."[72][73][74][75]

I read that and I could feel this icy grip, shaming me, humiliating me. Not only had much of my own "studies" and practices been done to death well before I was capable of understanding that Shit's Fucked Up (or understanding anything at all for that matter), but they were shared by a distant (ha) somewhat aloof (haha) recluse, who died mostly alone (BAAHAHAHAHAHAHA).

What this shows me, as much as it shows me anything, is that in all his religious searching and explorations of other belief based systems of thought, he never got to discordianism. Or, at least, he didn't GET IT if did get to it.

One thing that discordianism has shown the value of is the ability to Stick Apart Together and HAVE SOME FUCKING FUN. I feel Salinger could have used those lessons.

Many of us want to rip the core of the earth apart and have been left with a deep distaste for the status quo (whatever the fuck that is). Some of us just hate generally, up and down and across the board. And that's okay. Nothing wrong with hate. Beats apathy or forced Positive Thinking hands down, IMHO.

But that doesn't mean we lock ourselves away, or find some mountain cave to hide in. Monks and priests and the anti-social make this excuse, that truth can be found in solitude, in quiet contemplation. But this is a lie, another "escape" that amounts to no more than spartan window dressing.

This is also the biggest flaw in analytical philosophy. All that jargon, just another mountain to hide in. You can tell because any FUNCTIONAL system of belief or truth or explanation must be catered to nature of humans as SOCIAL animals.

These things, these beliefs, even Mega-dosing Vit.C. They are often just ways to avoid needing people, being close to them, and feeling the very real ups and downs that people bring with them wherever they go.

You need people, I need people. J.D. Salinger thought he didn't need people. And maybe he didn't, maybe he was just happy as a clam tucked away with is supplements and Ancient Texts and no one to talk to but his typewriter.

I don't want that. For me, that is just another kind of hell. The Hell of the Lonely Bastard, and until recently it was the same hell I was heading towards.

Now though, I'm going to go ahead and do what he was afraid to do, what I've been afraid to do.  I'm going to risk myself and see if I can't make some motherfucking friends. Even ones who occasionally tell each other to go fuck themselves. Even if I lose some here and there. There's a risk there, as with anything worth doing. Hell, I'm taking a risk just by posting this for you vicious bastards to read.

It's better this way, better than living death.



*Burns has countered this and I am liable to put my faith in his judgement.

[East Coast Hustle]

[The Wizard]

Good epiphany. Salinger mindfucked you from the grave.

[Freeky]

At first I was like  

and then I was  

And then

That's good stuff.

[the last yatto]

[Triple Zero]

I'm glad I didn't need to have read Catcher in the Rye to appreciate this.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I'm glad I didn't need to have read Catcher in the Rye to appreciate this.

they made us in school. then picked it to tiny yucksucky little pieces and analysed the fail fragments. 

Same.

Alty, great piece.

[Cain]

I'm glad I didn't need to have read Catcher in the Rye to appreciate this.

They need to start advertising that as "the favourite book of loser, would-be assassins everywhere!"

[Suu]

I'm glad I didn't need to have read Catcher in the Rye to appreciate this.

they made us in school. then picked it to tiny yucksucky little pieces and analysed the fail fragments. 

I had a fantastic English teacher when we read Catcher in the Rye, which was on the Ban List. He wouldn't let anyone get away with not reading it, and if you even mentioned serial killers, he would remind you that this was English class, and not Forensic Psychology. If you continued to complain and brought your parents into it, he would assume you weren't intelligent enough for Honors English and had you removed to go study with the rest of the kids. Naturally, this was the first book we read that year (the Great Gatsby was the 2nd.).

My parents made SURE I read that book. And I liked it. Maybe because I "got it" or I had a teacher that helped me "get it", but either way, it made a lot of sense to me. Holden Caulfield was perfectly fine; it was the rest of the world that was fucking crazy.

Guaranteed now that Salinger is dead, they will be making a movie of it. They had tried before, and he basically shot them down. I think that if it's done right, it can be really awesome, but at the same time, there will be a lot of people with very neo-conservative views that will protest the fuck out of it, not to mention the gays, since there is a lot of homophobic mentionings (but you're also talking about a story taking place in the 1950s). I'd be curious to see what could become of this.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I had a fantastic English teacher when we read Catcher in the Rye, which was on the Ban List. He wouldn't let anyone get away with not reading it, and if you even mentioned serial killers, he would remind you that this was English class, and not Forensic Psychology.

THIS.

[hooplala]

Still not sure what exactly it is that the killers see in it.  I would understand if they were all caught carrying copies of the Fountainhead.

[Salty]

How many of them were even factually connected with that book? People (and by people, I mean that horrible Mel Gibson movie) mention the Oklahoma Bombing, but that was The Turner Diaries.

[hooplala]

Mark David Chapman was carrying it when he got caught, and I think Hinkley was connected to it in some way also, wasn't he?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Mark David Chapman was carrying it when he got caught, and I think Hinkley was connected to it in some way also, wasn't he?

Lee Harvey Oswald put it under his elbow to steady his aim, and John Wilkes Booth was known to carry a copy.