Dumb Question

[Touch Of Death]

OK I gotta know. I have read The Catcher In The Rye years ago, and I gotta tell you. I just don't see the big deal. John Lennon's assassin had a copy on him; so, he saw something in it. Movies have been made with this book as the big reason why everything has happened; so somebody please tell me. What is the big deal? And while your at it, what is so great about The Great Gatsby?
Sean

 

[WC_lun]

Honestly, I can't tell you. They are well written, but not stories I would or have read more than once. On a similiar note, I can't stand Ernest Hemingway. I think his writing is poor and his story lines are disjointed.

 

[granfire]

somebody with pull went nuts over those stories and if you didn't want to be a rub you had to like them or sit with the unkool kids at lunch.

(I think Hemmingway's lifestyle added a lot to the 'legend')

 

[Omar B]

Yeah, I don't get those either. It's funny but back in college an ex and I really connected because we were Eng Lit students who really didnt see what was so great about some of these revered classics.

 

[Xue Sheng]

A not so sane person has an attraction to a book….. I doubt anyone would get it and I would not lose any sleep over it

I dealt with a guy years ago that was brought in under a mental health warrant and he claimed he was very close to figuring out the problems with the world and it had something to do with the Book of Mormon and the fact he lost a button on his button fly jeans… I did not ask him to explain further nor did I look to find out if he ever figured it out and I did not go out and read the book of Mormon either

For the record… I don’t much like The Catcher In The Rye or the Great Gatsby so I guess I’m really not the person to ask

 

[Touch Of Death]

I remember disliking Mel Gibson's Conspiracy Theory and now I don't know which is worse, that or Lethal Weapon IV. I guess they could suck equally.:mst:

 

[bushidomartialarts]

I think you have to be 17 and mad at the world to really "get" Catcher. It blew my mind when I was 15, but when I tried to re-read in my 20s I couldn't stand that whiny little *****.

Gatsby is all about the prose. If you tear into it somehow immune to the trite story and spoiled, irritating characters, it's very, very well written.

On Hemmingway, I agree. Hemmingway has characters who spend a lot of time talking about being honorable and manly. Steinbeck, by contrast has characters running around being honorable and manly without saying much on the subject at all.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I think you have to be 17 and mad at the world to really "get" Catcher. It blew my mind when I was 15, but when I tried to re-read in my 20s I couldn't stand that whiny little *****.

Gatsby is all about the prose. If you tear into it somehow immune to the trite story and spoiled, irritating characters, it's very, very well written.

On Hemmingway, I agree. Hemmingway has characters who spend a lot of time talking about being honorable and manly. Steinbeck, by contrast has characters running around being honorable and manly without saying much on the subject at all.

...so you are saying that if you have a victim mentality Catcher speaks to you, but as we mature, not so much?
Sean

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I think the current Wikipedia entry is actually quite close.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye

I 'get it' but I understand there are some who do not. I also do not get - or like - "The Great Gatsby." I don't care for any of F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing. I similarly do not care for William Faulkner (or most 'Southern Literature' to be blunt).

However, I'm a huge fan of Somerset Maugham, Saul Bellow, Albert Camus, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemmingway, Anais Nin, Henry Miller, John Updike, Joseph Conrad, Aldous Huxley, Anthony Burgess, and Charles Bukowski. Among others; these just come to mind most quickly.

Neglected book by Salinger, "Franny and Zooey," one of my favorites. I enjoyed just about anything Bukowski ever wrote. Except the poetry.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

...so you are saying that if you have a victim mentality Catcher speaks to you, but as we mature, not so much?
Sean

Truth. That self-centered, angsty, unfocused poor me that so many of us had as teens -- and I imagine sociopaths continue to have for much of their lives (thus its popularity among assassins, etc)

 

[Big Don]

I similarly do not care for William Faulkner (or most 'Southern Literature' to be blunt).

Greg Iles is quite good, or are modern books not literature?

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Greg Iles is quite good, or are modern books not literature?

I do not know his work, so I cannot say. Of course modern books can be literature; I just don't read much that is modern. Nothing wrong with it, per se, I just don't generally read it.

As to Iles being defined as a writer of the 'Southern Literature' to which I referred, that generally has more to do with the nature of his work than with where he lives. Does he write about the American South in his work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_literature

 

[WC_lun]

Since I grew up in the south I enoy southern literature IF it is well written, has characters that I care about, and a story line that makes me want to find out what is next. I am finding more and more as an adult, I like less and less novels. I tend to feel they are predictable with no character growth. I used to hate non-fiction, but find myself reading that more as well.

 

[granfire]

Since I grew up in the south I enoy southern literature IF it is well written, has characters that I care about, and a story line that makes me want to find out what is next. I am finding more and more as an adult, I like less and less novels. I tend to feel they are predictable with no character growth. I used to hate non-fiction, but find myself reading that more as well.

Maybe you are looking in the wrong section.
I have found a few gems in the kid/YA section that are very innovative and far removed from 'adult' themes.
The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix is one of them, Eoin Colfer wrote a couple others.
(Michael Ende, but his stuff seems to not be too popular in the US, bast the Neverending Story)

I guess that's why The last Airbender drew such a diverse crowd: It was by far a superior show to pretty much anything on TV at the time (and sadly treated like a redheaded stepchild by Nick and Viacom)