/lit/ - Literature

>>19812921
I've noticed that the people who love this are usually right wingers. Probably they can identify with Holden. For most people it's a decent novel with a well written but annoying main character. You're not missing anything if you ditch it.

>>19812921
It’s a classic for being an older novel with an LGBT main character, that’s it

>>19812921
The conceit of Catcher in the Rye is that it is a transcript of a teenager's fear of growing up and becoming an adult. It's shockingly realistic from the perspective of a teenager. The flip side of that is that reading it for the first time as an adult, it seems puerile, and Holden is obnoxious, because all teenagers are obnoxious.

>>19812960
He's not afraid of growing up, he's afraid of becoming insincere and a hypocrite, something he associates with all adults, but not something he thinks is an inevitable outcome from growing up.

>>19812926
Do you even stop to think before posting? This book was one of the most read, most liked, books for anyone aged between 15 and 25 during the 20th century. The fact that you brought politics into this shows how rotten with ideology your mind is. It's called confirmation bias by the way.

it's a novel about paedophilic adolescence
>>19812956
what?

>>19812991
>"Stradlater was a very sexy bastard."

Caulfield is bi af

>>19812969
ie, he's afraid of growing up

>>19812996
Naw, I'm a big fan of making everything gay, but men can recognize that another man is handsome without being gay or bi.

>>19813012
There's a difference between admitting another man is conventionally handsome and actually calling him a "sexy bastard" while you watch him shave with his shirt off.

>>19813019
I feel like that is a heterosexual compliment (I am a gay). Anyway, there are hundreds of "older novels with LGBT main characters" there is no reason to resort to Catcher in The Rye

>>19813021
Lmao, you have brain damage and attempt to lecture us on what is and is not gay?

>>19813023
Actually anyone who finds girls more attractive than boys has brain damage.

>>19812960
>The flip side of that is that reading it for the first time as an adult, it seems puerile, and Holden is obnoxious, because all teenagers are obnoxious

I feel like if anything, the book is better appreciated as an adult.

>>19813029

>>19813029
so fucking BASED. i love gay people

>>19813100
>>19813131
Nice samefag

>>19813079
I went through the bell-curve meme myself. I thought it was the greatest book ever as a teenager, then I actually burned the book in college because I thought it immature and childish. Now as an adult I admire it and almost miss how I originally felt about it.

>>19813340
What do you like about it?

>>19813340
I probably would've gone through the same thing, had I read it when I was younger. But I only read the book recently. It is funny though that Catcher was one of those books everyone always recommended to me when I was a teenager. I definitely see how I would've identified with Holden as a teenager yet probably would've despised him later on. But reading it as an adult in my 30s I do feel a faint, vague nostalgia for my teens and sympathize with Holden, even as I recognize he is meant to be a bit obnoxious. It's like you said, teenagers simply just tend to be that way.

>>19813319
>he doesn't know about /lit/ being 4chin's homocentral
Go back

>>19812956
>>19812996
>>19813019
You’re both wrong. Holden is observing that the guy is sex-obsessed. You’re falling victim to an outdated use if the word “sexy.”

>>19812921
I think the artist listens to bright eyes

>>19812956
>>19812996
>>19813019
>>19813023
Holden was actually infatuated with his sister desu

>>19813455
This. It is obvious. Holden also describes himself as sexy. It basically means horny or sex-obsessed

>>19814210
>Butthole sun...

>>19812921
did he r-pe his sister? This is the most curious aspect of the novel. Holden is a gamma male

>>19814339
Do you associate circles with assholes?

>>19814490
If he did have relations with her, it wasn’t rape

>>19812926

>>19812926
you eat shit i bet

>>19814236
He was infatuated with her innocence more than anything.

>>19814490
What the fuck does r-pe mean?

Interesting to know that the book, which so many people dismiss as immature whining, not concerned with "real" problems, was written in part while Salinger was involved in some of the most brutal battles of World War II. Salinger landed at Normandy with pages of "Catcher in the Rye" in his pocket.

>>19812926
but, like you can say that about any outcast.

I don't get why it always has to be "right-wing this, right-wing that."

Taxi Driver, Joker, Patrick Bateman, etc..

What, outcast=right-wing?

>>19814490
much to think about after seeing this image

>>19818343
Probably that's why right wingers like it so much. For the rest? It's just alright. It's well written and Holden is realistic, but he's just annoying.

>>19812926
>right wingers are all fascist think-alikes!
>also they uh.. hate society and are outcasts?
>y-yeah!!

>>19812921
It's definitely one of those books you had to read early to understand.