Tropers not knowing you're not supposed to like Holden Caulfield

Odradek

The point of the book is to jerk off about how much better you are than this fictional teenager.

Duh.

glennmagusharvey

I neither disliked nor liked him.

I don't think I understood narrative when I read it anyway lol

Bee

I thought the point was about clinical depression and how adults are scum.

Calica

actually, phonies are good

glennmagusharvey

phony shun is the name of an actual culture in literary history

and here we have this giant enemy bookban, you attack its cultural distance for one lone instance of fuckage

Alduin

I thought the point of the book was to show us the wacky adventures of an emo kid with rich parents.

Odradek

Acererak said:

I thought the point of the book was to show us the wacky adventures of an emo kid with rich parents.

No.

One-Winged Eagle

Okay, so why does it matter that we're not "supposed" to like him, if people do actually like him anyway?

The author is fucking dead, folks.

Bee

If we're not supposed to like him, he probably would've put at least some token effort into making literally anyone else in the story likable or even remotely relatable.

Obā-san

MachSpeed said:

Okay, so why does it matter that we're not "supposed" to like him, if people do actually like him anyway?

The author is fucking dead, folks.

you know, this is what i was thinking when this thread resurfaced

Odradek

https://heapershangout.com/index.php?p=/discussion/9110/you-re-not-supposed-to-like-him/p1

MetaFour

Bee said:

If we're not supposed to like him, he probably would've put at least some token effort into making literally anyone else in the story likable or even remotely relatable.

I'm about 1/3 through it right now. I don't trust a single damn word Caulfield says. Dude lies to everyone around him, so why would he give the straight story to me?

Klinotaxis

his sister was likeable, wasn't she

Crystal

Yeah, Holden thinks rather highly of Phoebe. I think another girl too? Jane?

Obā-san

never trust straight boys

Odradek

Has anyone noticed those thinkpieces about hipster bros that are all clearly written by hipster chicks bitter about their exes and hipster dudes trying to score points with hipster chicks? Because those are terrible.

MetaFour

Baldanders said:

Has anyone noticed those thinkpieces about hipster bros that are all clearly written by hipster chicks bitter about their exes and hipster dudes trying to score points with hipster chicks? 

No. In fact...

Baldanders said:

Has anyone noticed those thinkpieces about hipster[s] 

No.

Klinotaxis

No.

One time I flipped through a book of literary analysis of Catcher, and the only essay/"thinkpiece" I remember was the one that claimed it was about Zen.

Odradek

http://www.theawl.com/2014/09/a-portrait-of-the-alt-bro-as-a-young-dumbass

Obā-san

Klinotaxis said:

One time I flipped through a book of literary analysis of Catcher, and the only essay/"thinkpiece" I remember was the one that claimed it was about Zen.

that'd be something

Odradek

http://www.theawl.com/2015/08/the-bro-of-the-system

Klinotaxis

I am so glad I googled this.

Obā-san

Klinotaxis said:

I am so glad I googled this.

this makes me actually kinda want to read this book

onto the endless reading list it goes

Crystal

Ahh, the book's got a special place in my heart. Thanks Klinoloser.

Salix Babylonika

I was the same age as Caulfield when I read it and I basically loathed every second of that book.

There were several better novels I read that year.

Salix Babylonika

it is however responsible for one of Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire's best lines.