Is Catcher in the Rye past its expiration date?
Anne Trubeck over at Good Magazine certainly thinks so. Trubeck states that J.D. Salinger’s classic “lacks the currency or shock value it once had, and has lost some of its critical cachet,” perhaps challenging its status as a classic. I tried to hearken back to when I read Catcher in the Rye — high school of course — and realized that I remember very very little of that book. I do remember that it didn’t have the massive impact on me that it was supposed to have. I enjoyed it, but didn’t identify with Holden on the basic raw level that I was supposed to, which was a serious let down, given my healthy sense of teen angst. It didn’t seem fair that even the pleasures of identifying with a similarly angsty teen should be denied me in all of my angst-ridden glory.
I agree with Trubeck’s point that we should reevaluate whether Catcher in the Rye is really essential reading for teens. But I do have a problem with her reasoning, which is that “many newer novels of adolescence are available.” Staleness in literature has never been an issue for me, and I think it’s dangerous to limit adolescent reading by and large to modern novels. To become an agile thinker, it’s important to be exposed to a wide breadth of literature from a cultural standpoint but also a chronological standpoint. Giving kids books they can “relate” to is a great way to get them started, but only as a jumping off point for more challenging explorations.
But I soundly second Trubeck’s first suggestion for replacement media, the television show Freaks and Geeks, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. But I would like to point out that even when the show was being made in the 1990s, its setting was dated back to 1980 — supposedly making it out of step with a modern audience as well. Which just goes to show, well realized characters will connect, despite aging frames of reference.
Posted on August 28th, 2008 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Books, Movies, Uncategorized
One wonders if the great classics, even those of Shakespeare and Shelley, in all media for that matter, suffer irretreviably from the process of aging. Should we not read the Greeks? Of course, Salinger should not be considered in the pantheon, but still CITR is a valuable read even beyond a historian trying to understand the post-WWII world and angst. I read it as an adult (as I did Kerouac), and I don’t think either hit me as they would have had I read them as a youth. With the accelerated technological and social advances, one wonders if material becomes too dated so quickly that as a culture we are losing some of our moorings. Then again, look at the whole generation for whom HARRY POTTER is the common denominator.