Re: It's been a while!
Jaramillojp@kktv.com
Sun, 10 May 1998 22:03:06 -0700
Doesn't anybody out there think that maybe what Salinger was trying to
do with his style of fiction was close to what maybe Ginsberg was trying
to do with his poetry. Ginsberg's vision or new consciousness might have
been what Holden was missing and in need of through his problems in the
city. Can we agree that Holden is about as beat a character as it comes.
Beat meaning down and out and lonely to the lack of soul. I guess what I
am getting at is maybe not so much similarities on the page or in the
real world of literature as I am trying to find in their thought.
Specifically the lines in chapter nineteen of Catcher where Holden is
incredibly beat and lonesome talking to his intellectual friend, Old
Luce. That whole chapter has a feel that eastern or simpler thought
seems more important to Holden than the psycho babble of Old Luce's
father. Maybe I'm reaching but if we think of Holden as a great mind
with problems maybe the problems are as much his typical western and
capitalistic surrounding. He even tells Old Luce that maybe he should go
to China so that his sex life could be more physical and spiritual.
Just a thought late one Sunday evening.
Suerte