RIP - J.D. Salinger -Brilliant Review of Catcher in the Rye

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Meadow
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29 Jan 2010, 8:31 pm

This is what I'm interested in reading:
Dream Catcher: A Memoir, written by his daughter Margaret Salinger.

http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Catcher-Mem ... 819&sr=1-1



cosmiccat
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30 Jan 2010, 12:03 am

Quoting Meadow

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I'm more inclined toward G rated material and also not a big fan of men's psychology, which is what it sort of boils down to, and even less for women's.

Unless my memory is failing me, CITR is not X-rated or sleazy in any way. At least it didn't come across to me that way. The thing that impressed me most about the book was the sincerity in the character of Holden Caulfield He says things with such complete honesty and he is beautifully naive. He makes even the most mundane experiences come alive and grab your interest.
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I don't mean to suggest I'm not crazy as the next person.
:lol:

Dream Catcher sounds great. I read the first few pages and it's a book I would definitely like to buy and read.



Meadow
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30 Jan 2010, 12:22 am

^ No, I didn't say x-rated or sleazy, that's a bit much. I'm a prude. I'm still interested and the character you describe definitely sounds interesting. I'm just funny when it comes to fiction and I don't always like things a large majority of people like too, many times, so I don't know. I may read it one day when I get around to it. There was some reference to prostitution and that's fine but it isn't my favorite sort of material. I'm sure it was a very small or brief reference but it definitely put me off.

I'm glad you like the memoir too. I'm eager to read it. :)



cosmiccat
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30 Jan 2010, 12:56 am

Quoting Sallamandrina

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I remember a dear friend telling me it's a terrible faux pas to mention Dostoevsky in a social situation - I thought he was adorably witty and sarcastic (which he was) and had no idea that he was also right.

Also thanks for the link, 1 Irritated Mother was fun - honest and with a self deprecating sense of humour - a very rare breed in these days of overly inflated egos. People just take themselves way too seriously and than think I'm a snob because I like Dostoevsky Wink


I can't imagine why mentioning Dostoevsky in a social situation would be considered a faux pas or why anyone would think you were a snob because you like him.

Your welcome. Glad you liked reading 1 Irritated Mother.



cosmiccat
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30 Jan 2010, 1:28 am

paolo wrote:
I have read all Salinger between 1959 and 1961. I became enthusiastic about Salinger and I also wrote a rather long review of the Catcher and the Nine Stories, which was published in a magazine in '61, and was the beginning of a "career" as editor of the publishing house of that magazine. At that time I didn't know anything about ASD. I have alawys lived in great difficulties and only four or five years ago I discovered Asperger and found that I fit totally with the diagnosis. Now that JDS died would like to reread his fiction in the intent to shed some light on the realatioship between JDS and AS. Of course for Holden Caulfield the social world was entirely phoney and this might be attributed to his inability to adapt and compromise. But is compromise the right thing to do? I hope the thread last some time and the matter of the realationship between AS and fiction may be discussed at lenght.
In a book by julie Brown (Jessica Kingsley) Writers on the spectrum (2010. London) various writers (Melville, Dckinson. Lewis Carroll, Donna Williams are examined in the prdprctive of AS.. I hope i will be able to come back on the subject.


Hello Paolo. I would love to read your review. I wish there was some way you could share it with us if you would be willing. Yes, I agree about re-reading Salinger and I would like to do that as well for the same reason. The relationship between AS and fiction is a subject of interest to me also and it would make for a great discussion. Last year, after having a very interesting dream about Hans Christian Anderson and doing some on-line reading about him, I learned that he was speculatively diagnosed with AS by Michael Fitzgerald, I sent for his book "The Genesis of Artistic Creativity" and would highly recommend it.

From Wiki
Quote:
Fitzgerald, of the Department of Child Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, has speculated about historical figures with autism in numerous journal papers and at least three books: The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts, Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome and Autism and Creativity,

Fitzgerald speculated the following were autistic in The Genesis of Artistic Creativity:
* Writers – Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Bruce Chatwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, George Orwell, Jonathan Swift and William Butler Yeats.
* Philosophers – A.J. Ayer, Baruch de Spinoza, Immanuel Kant and Simone Weil.
* Musicians – Bela Bartok, Ludwig van Beethoven, Glenn Gould, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Erik Satie.
* Painters – Vincent van Gogh, L.S. Lowry, Jack B. Yeats and Andy Warhol.

Unstoppable Brilliance discusses Daisy Bates, Samuel Beckett, Robert Boyle, Eamon de Valera, Robert Emmet, William Rowan Hamilton, James Joyce, Padraig Pearse and W.B. Yeats.

Autism and Creativity says the following may have been autistic: Lewis Carroll, Eamon de Valera, Sir Keith Joseph, Ramanujan, Ludwig Wittgenstein and W.B. Yeats.


Do please come back.