Catcher

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<<I think we were having a similar discussion to this on the topic of
Holden's madness awhile back, and everyone was delving into the textbooks
to see if Holden's belief that he was disappearing was an obvious
hallmark
of a schitzophrenic or manic depressive or what have you, when someone
(I'm
afraid I can't remember who) came out with the most beautiful answer
which
completely shelved all the mumbo jumbo and gave an answer which was
totally
symbolic and utterly perfect and just totally washed all the
intellectualism out the door - which, I'm assuming, given JDS's distrust
of
the ol' section man, is just what he intended. --Camille >>

I remember that discussion.  It needed to be printed and framed for
future reference.

Yeah, I agree with that kind of thinking, and especially when it comes to
subjects like Holden's madness, Antolini a pervert, Seymour a pedophile,
etc.  You'll notice that these three specific examples have to do with
how the character's psychological state is reflected in the narrative. 
Franny's pregnancy would itself be a physical condition, but in a way
it's a reflection of Franny's psychology as well -- esp. when you
consider the evidences that people use to support that hypothesis.

But there are second level issues in fiction that do need to be dealt
with literally.  Good fiction creates a "real" world that, of necessity,
has concrete characteristics.  In fiction that strives for any kind of
realism at all, the character can only be in one place at one time, and
knowing his physical location is necessary if we're going to understand
the narrative.   When Holden said one side of his head is covered with
"millions" of gray hairs (and yes, Holden loves hyperbole :) ), that's to
be taken literally  before we consider how it may reflect Holden's split
personality (between possibly the wisdom or insight of the old and the
idealism of youth).

I realize I'm speaking about the physical location of Holden while he's
writing the narrative, and that's different from the physical location of
Holden during the events of the narrative.  And I also know the former is
less important than the latter, but how much less important I won't
decide for myself until I've completely explored the issue.       
But yeah, this whole discussion does smack of section-manism, I admit
that :)  I'm going to post that paper I write when I finish it (I've
written the first thousand words as an introduction and will write the
rest when I've reread Catcher again) and I hope it becomes clear that I
admit freely to being a section man :).  But this time I'm not
apologizing for it.  I think we need to understand the literal details of
the story as completely as possible before we presume to dive beneath the
surface.  Failing to do so is like trying to drink half a cup of water
when one **side** of the cup is missing :)  If the structure isn't all
present most of the content gets lost too.

Jim  

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