Returning to a book

[miss_yt]

I've been thinking lately that I should start reading some classic books (or start reading, period, because I don't do it as much as I used to). So I've been making a list, in my head, of the books I want to read, though whenever I have an opportunity to get one I seem to forget the whole list. Since I recently watched the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (which is the recent series, not the movie, and I think it's better than the movie on the whole), I decided that I had to read Catcher in the Rye. SAC makes numerous references to J.D. Salinger's work - the legendary hacker called The Laughing Man is named after one of Salinger's short stories, and the motto that appears on his "calling card" is "what I thought I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes [or should I?." They even slip in a reference to the "secret goldfish" story that Holden Caulfield's older brother wrote.

I hadn't read Catcher in the Rye, but I'd heard it read before. One of my teachers in middle school read a chapter to us every day for a few weeks. I don't remember much about it, except that I was surprised that we'd get to read (or be read to from)a book with so much profanity in it. That was...God, eleven years ago. Practically forever. Anyway, I got an audiobook version just the other day. I used to mock my mother for listening to audiobooks, rather than actually reading the books they were recordings of, but my views on audiobooks have changed recently. For one thing, I've been listening to audiobooks of Neil Gaiman reading his own work, and it's really a different experience from reading the book yourself. Although I'm not saying that I'll give up books altogether. Another thing is that I need stuff to listen to at work anyway. And of course I like to knit, and you can't really read and knit at the same time. So I figure I could listen to an audiobook while knitting. That works.

Anyway, about Catcher in the Rye - I'm about two thirds through it, I think. And I can certainly understand and appreciate it a lot more now than I could when I was in middle school. Now I know why people are so fascinated by Holden Caulfield - he's kind of an ignorant jerk, and often immature, but he's remarkably perceptive. You wouldn't think that one character could be all the things he is without seeming fake (or, in his words, "phony,"), but he does. More than that, is consistent in certain ways but tends to act and speak kind of randomly, the way a real person (especially a confused and angry teenager) does.

You could conceivably sum him up by saying that he has A.D.H.D. or something, and I don't think you'd be far wrong, considering the kinds of problems he has (failing out of multiple schools, absentmindedness, inappropriate comments, almost pathological lying, etc.), but that doesn't do him justice. It's more like he's thinking on a level that most people, for the sake of their own sanity, don't think on, and that takes up all of his mind so that he can't think about what most people would consider practical things. He's constitutionally incapable of playing along or pulling the wool over his own eyes the way most people do - he knows how it's done, but he doesn't have the stomach for it - so he never fits in and keeps getting in trouble. Or maybe he's not so special, maybe he's a lot like the average teenage boy, only a little more so. He's difficult to explain, and seems like a complete jerk, but you can't help liking him.

Comments

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

I read Catcher in the Rye, under duress, when I was about 14. It was summer reading. We had to read 4 boy comming-of-age books that summer. I got back to school and was asked to write about my summer reading assignemtns, and all I could think to say about it was that I couldn't identify in the least with the protagnonist. Yes, I said protagonist. I was a nerdy 14.

What got me the most was that my dad, who had read the book in his early 20s, kept telling me how great it was, all a big adventure story. (I HATED adventure.) I finally handed him the book and he re-read it. He looked at me and said, "I didn't remember how depressing it was!"

I am forever indebted to the book for one reason, though. I brought it and nothing else to my grandparent's house that summer, hoping that by not bringing a whole pile of desired books, I could force myself to read it. Looking at Holden Caulfield next to a stack of my grandmother's mysteries, a genre I'd hithertobefore eschewed, the mysteries started suddenly looking much better by comparison. Now I adore mysteries. But I still can't find anything with which to identify with Holden Caufield, at least as I remember him from 14. Maybe someday?

[miss-yt.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, I sort of identify with him in some ways, although he's not one of my favorite all-time fictional characters.

By the way, can you please e-mail me about that thing we discussed earlier?

[armageddonkitty.livejournal.com]

I read truckloads of Heinlein in my teens. Truckloads.

My husband had never read him, so I started listing out books for him to read. (He's very much into reading the classics of science fiction.) Through his eyes, I got a very new perspective on Heinlein--an it wasn't as flattering as I thought it would be.

Matt was most annoyed with the obligatory social commentary and the books written for adolescents. In retrospect, I can't say I blame him.

[miss-yt.livejournal.com]

Piers Anthony is kind of like that too. I really liked his stuff when I was an adolescent, but that's what most of his books are - adolescent.

I'm not really into classic science fiction, although I have read and enjoyed a few works like Joan D. Vinge's Snow Queen. But I'll get around to tackling that genre soon.

[armageddonkitty.livejournal.com]

Golden age scifi you need to read:

Alfred Bester (GOD yes)
Theodore Sturgeon
Philip K. Dick

Upon command, I can cheerfully draw up a list of the /very best/ in scifi literature from across several different eras. Or, you can do what my husband does: Whip out a list of the Hugo and Nebula award winners/nominees for each year (easily findable on the net) and just start picking books from them. :>

P.S. I think Piers Anthony is like that for everyone... Although his Bio of a Space Tyrant series was... cough... quite adult.

From a review on the net: While Bio of a Space Tyrant is indeed a juvenile looking and sounding book, I must caution that it is not by far. Much of the storyline, and especially throughout Refugee, is very gory, sexual and brutal. It is rife with senseless violence, so if you're in the mood for a space drama that has no qualms about melting people with warp drive engines and providing the wonderfully gory and detailed results, or the bloody mass rape of entire stocks of women, this is your cup of tea. Or should I say blood?

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

Luckily I didn't discover Heinlein until a couple of years ago - I couldn't deal with SF at all until I was 17. It's ironic though because even though I was the librarian of a club named for his Doublestar, I didn't actually read my first book of his until years after that. I read and liked Stranger in a Strange Land a lot - need to reread it over the next year or so I think, though, to see what I think again.

[armageddonkitty.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. Yes. Well, Stranger in a Strange Land is one I give Heinlein for free. However...

You should read Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon if you can find it. (Go to this URL to find a copy if you like: http://usedbooksearch.co.uk).

Turns out that Ted and RAH were friends, and it's not unreasonable to assume that they discussed the oddly similiar premises of both books. Godbody is written in multiple first person, and it has a unique effect on the storyline and... well, if you read it, you'll see.