{"id":12795,"date":"2013-08-25T12:36:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/?p=12795"},"modified":"2013-08-25T17:51:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T00:51:08","slug":"phonies-phonies-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2013\/08\/25\/phonies-phonies-everywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"phonies, phonies, everywhere."},"content":{"rendered":"

I always have to be weary when\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0works from an author are published post-posthumous<\/a>ly.<\/p>\n

When I finally got around to reading Catcher in the Rye… well, I basically liked it, and understood roughly what is so effective about it.<\/p>\n

More importantly, I understand both the reason for the detractors of this book it (class issue at stake: your\u00c2\u00a0spoiled rich kid who needs to just get over himself already) <\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and the lovers of the book (though I have been puzzled by some fans — like, your 18 year old proto- Abercombie and Fitch shopper… but, we’re all phonies calling everyone else phonies<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Into the darker corner of the book… the \u00c2\u00a0“implicated in a the killing of John Lennon and attempted killing of Ronald Reagan” reputation. \u00c2\u00a0Yep! \u00c2\u00a0I got that too from reading it. \u00c2\u00a0It’s good to read Arthur Bremer’s diary<\/a> right alongside Catcher in the Rye, and then compare and contrast.
\n(And, no, don’t try that for a school assignment.)<\/p>\n

So, what do I make of this commenter?<\/p>\n

again, reads ever so much better if you are\/were in\/from New England. Not a book for summer time little league baseball kids<\/em>.<\/p>\n

it reads ever so much better if you live(d) in New England … not a book for southern farm kids<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait. \u00c2\u00a0He’s just calling everyone who doesn’t like Catcher in the Rye a bunch of phonies. \u00c2\u00a0It’s like… he’s Houldon Caulfied. \u00c2\u00a0Though… with a rather geocentric twist on his classifications. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe we go back, a bit back-handedly, into the “having trouble sympathizing with some whining rich kid” in a New England border school idea, with what comes across as disparaging the “southern farm kids”.<\/p>\n

Well… I suppose he’ll be able to dig further into his inner-world.\u00c2\u00a0One of the Salinger books would center on “Catcher” protagonist Holden Caulfield and his family, including a revised version of an early, unpublished story “The Last and Best of the Peter Pans.” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t think I will ever quite understand something like this:
\nSalinger: a burnt-out author running a publicity scam.
\n<\/em>Notwithstanding the obvious:
\nThat’s a good trick. He’s been dead since 2010<\/em>.
\nLike: is this author worth actively hating, as opposed to passively hating and punting when you see an article put up concerning him?<\/p>\n

This comment makes a bit more sense:
\nAnother book about whiny, self-obsessed teens is just what America needs !!!
\n<\/em>Particularly followed as it is by this response:
\nOnly if it has vampires<\/em>.
\nThat’d actually be an interesting book. \u00c2\u00a0If only that “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” fad (which probably only netted that one reasonably good book) had brought in a “Catcher in the Rye with emo-vampires\/zombies\/whatever” item… no, it wouldn’t get past the estate of JD Salinger.<\/p>\n

Another bemusing comment:
\nThey made me read Catcher in the Rye, when I was a kid in school, about thirteen I think.<\/em>
\nI really disliked that book. I disliked everyone. I kept wishing Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, which I had read just before that one, would show up and rip off every one of their heads and defecate down their necks<\/em>.
\nWait. \u00c2\u00a0It’s Houldon Caulfied again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always have to be weary when\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0works from an author are published post-posthumously. When I finally got around to reading Catcher in the Rye… well, I basically liked it, and understood roughly what is so effective about it. More importantly, I understand both the reason for the detractors of this book it (class issue at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12795"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12801,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795\/revisions\/12801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}