I read "Catcher in the Rye" this week. I had never read it before and thought I should since its a 'classic'. To be honest, for the first few chapters, it didn't really capture me. But suddenly, one night, flipping through a few pages before I fell asleep, I realized how incredible and astonishing it is. I've just finished it and I want to open it back up and go through it again because I feel like I've left so much inside of it. One quote that I just can't get out of my head tonight comes from chapter 16. Holden is talking about why he loves the museum of natural history and says...
"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move....
...Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd have heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean, you'd be different in some way - I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it."
Sorry for the long quotation, but I just have it swirling in my head. I wake up thinking about gasoline rainbows and how I can't return to work or school or class as the same person I had the day before. And mostly, I love the way in which Salinger throws both that passion and apathy together...pulls at my soul.
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5 comments:
From the moment I read that book, I was captivated. I own three copies of it. Glad you liked it too.
I think most people end up ignoring James Castle, even though I think he's an extremely important character in the novel. Of course, he's only mentioned on two pages of the book, so that might be why he's so overlooked.
Yes Bri, I think passion and apathy make an interesting little duo. Sometimes you feel so passionately connected to/inspired by something simple like a gasoline rainbow in a puddle, but you don't know just why and don't feel like trying to communicate why to anybody else, who likely doesn't care. I get that. At the same time, you can feel like everyting is just meaningless anyway, since you're one person thinking a series of insignificant and incommunicatable thoughts... and so apathy shotrly follows. It's natural to be passionate... easier to become apathetic.
Jamie
woo. i wanna read it now. i'll trade you your copy of "catcher in the rye" for my copy of "who has seen the wind." coming-of-age-trade-a-thon.
i'm not stalking you i swear.. just find you interesting..
"and by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
all these voices
I hear in my mind
all these words
I hear in mind
all this music
and it breaks my heart."
gvwstfcib http://crush-the-castle.com Crush The Castle
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