Subject: Re: Huck & Holden
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Sun Jul 01 2001 - 14:34:11 GMT
On Sun, Jul 01, 2001 at 05:47:28PM +0100, Scottie Bowman wrote:
> I’d be grateful if someone could suggest where to look
> for the Will article. In the past, I’ve felt an instinctive
> sympathy with his attitudes as expressed in such of his stuff
> as I’ve read. But this certainly does sound a duff shot,
> all right.
Try the fount of George Will wisdom, the Wash Post. This is all one
line, for those of you whose mailers break up long lines:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/columns/willgeorge/
A1964-2001Jun29.html
> Is it possible that Will’s generation & the preceding ones
> (mine, for example) grew up that tiny bit closer to a rural
> world than, say, the post war ones where, increasingly,
> young people have had their being along the concrete canyons?
It's possible, but I give you more credit for thought and old George
rather less credit. He's just not as careful a thinker as you are,
Scottie. He probably got one of his flunkies to pull a handful of
1951 reviews and to highlight some of the more conservative criticism
that has appeared since the 1950s, and used that as the basis for his
column. Somehow I can't envision him sitting by the fire with brandy
in hand, making his way through the book himself -- certainly not
without a precis in hand from one of his legendary scurrying flunkies.
He manages to throw in his obligatory passing reference to classic
literature (in this case, Ulysses) and, in his words, "that exhausts
Holden's resemblance to anyone heroic." *
[* Some number of years ago there was a minor tempest when it came to
light that Will allegedly employed erudite young folk to provide him
with egghead quotations for his columns. Will denied it all, but the
charges stuck, and the accusing parties stood by their words. Garry
Trudeau, in the cartoon "Doonesbury," had a wonderful time lampooning
Will. This is one reason why I have a hard time imagining Will
actually making his way through a copy of CATCHER for the fifty-year
anniversary to see if it holds up.]
> I certainly wouldn't share Will’s take on Holden as conveyed
> by John. But I can perhaps understand why he looks back
> on that raft going down the great stream & sees it carrying
> more magic (& within its own idiom, just as much comedic
> truth) than the desperate odyssey back to the apartment &
> old Phoebe.
Again as with CATCHER, I can't see George Will actually sitting down
to read a copy of Huck Finn, whereas in your case I trust your
impressions more because I suspect you've reread it in recent years.
With a character like George Will, why is it that I have a hard time
imagining him plunking himself down with a large 19th century novel
for the sake of doing a column? Forgive me if my cynicism seems
unwarranted, but I see him as more likely to be leafing through a copy
of Cliff's Notes when it comes to Mark Twain.
--tim
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