34 replies to this topic

[richard]

A few years back, I remember seeing a 'Most Beloved Literary Character List.' I don't remember the publication or even where I seen this list, but I know it exists.

Anyway, the first place winner was 'Nick' from The Great Gatsby .

Trailing right behind in second place was 'Holden Caulfield' from The Catcher in the Rye .

Personally, I believe Holden takes it, hands down.

However, that is not the goal of this poll/thread. I'm curious to see which of the two books themselves are SOMBies bigger fans of. I always believed that Catcher was fiction at its best. However, that's not to discredit Gatsby -- but I just can't consider it as monumental as the former.

So?

[Tony]

Salinger will turn 90 on New Year's Day.

[pong]

Catcher and it's not even close.

[Rob Gordon]

Both very much a part of me.
Attended a prep school not unlike the one Holden describes.
The headmaster, who recently passed away, at the prep school made all seniors in his English class memorize the last page of the Great Gatsby.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

[no magnets]

I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best.

oh really? i would like to hear more about the real life adventures of holden caulfield.

catcher is all right, but i never latched onto it like a lot of people. gatsby, on the other hand, is my favorite book.

[RadioHitchcock]

A few years back, I remember seeing a 'Most Beloved Literary Character List.' I don't remember the publication or even where I seen this list, but I know it exists.

Anyway, the first place winner was 'Nick' from The Great Gatsby .

Trailing right behind in second place was 'Holden Caulfield' from The Catcher in the Rye .

Personally, I believe Holden takes it, hands down.

However, that is not the goal of this poll/thread. I'm curious to see which of the two books themselves are SOMBies bigger fans of. I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best. However, that's not to discredit Gatsby -- but I just can't consider it as monumental as the former.

So?

Catcher In The Rye.
I took it out of the classroom library in 5th grade thinking it had something to do with baseball, I thought it was going to be a Roy Campanella biography or something.
Ended up stealing it from the classroom library and reading it every year from 5th grade till about college or something, along with Of Mice and Men.
Book seriously turned me on to literature. Was never forced to read it in high school or anything, which may be why I liked it so much.

Great Gatsby.
Never had to read it in high school or college either.
Tried to read it recently and could not get into the characters one bit. Couldn't figure out what the big deal about it was. Prefer "An American Tragedy" to it.
Maybe I needed to read it when I was younger.

[Tony]

Great Gatsby.
Never had to read it in high school or college either.
Tried to read it recently and could not get into the characters one bit. Couldn't figure out what the big deal about it was. Prefer "An American Tragedy" to it.
Maybe I needed to read it when I was younger.

The lyricism is the big deal. Dreiser is an important writer but has all the literary grace of the phone book.

[Agrimorfee]

Catcher was/is more significant in my life...and I never really got into the ending of Gatsby.

But Gatsby fans should check out a novel that I've sung the praises of many a time, Gilligan's Wake by Tom Carson...specifically Chapter 4, which hypothesises a younger Lovey Howell of Gilligan's Island fame hanging out with Daisy as the Roaring 20s crumbles into the Great Depression. It sounds totally stupid in theory, but it's a very touching and sad tale in the middle of a totally bizarre and amazing novel.

Also noteworthy, the Elevator Repair Service theater company presents Gatz (a 7-hour staged reading of the book...yup, you read that correctly) this weekend at the MCA

[Slackmo]

Gatsby in a laugher.

Catcher can Holden Magroin.

[Agrimorfee]

Salinger will turn 90 on New Year's Day.

And hopeful book publicists the world over will re-establish their Dead Pool bets again on that date once again.

[Finn McCool]

I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best.

oh really? i would like to hear more about the real life adventures of holden caulfield.

I suppose it counts that 'he' inspired a real band called Rollerskate Skinny, right? Maybe Mark David Chapman gets a nod, too?

[no magnets]

I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best.

oh really? i would like to hear more about the real life adventures of holden caulfield.

I suppose it counts that 'he' inspired a real band called Rollerskate Skinny, right? Maybe Mark David Chapman gets a nod, too?

hinckley loved it too, right?

[le chaton]

catcher is all right, but i never latched onto it like a lot of people.

me neither. i found him so damn annoying i didn't give a shit what happened to him.

[Agrimorfee]

I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best.

oh really? i would like to hear more about the real life adventures of holden caulfield.

I suppose it counts that 'he' inspired a real band called Rollerskate Skinny, right? Maybe Mark David Chapman gets a nod, too?

hinckley loved it too, right?

Also a favorite of renowned shoplifter Winona Ryder.

[M_Rots]

Whe I first read Catcher, I immediately identified with it. That's its problem: Everyone who reads it reads into it and comes away sure it was written about their great alienation. If Catcher was merely about an upper class kid who's alienated from life by money and privilege, that would be one thing. Maybe. But it isn't about that - it's about a kid who's alienated from life b/c America has recently fought an immense war that supposedly restored balance and goodness to the world and, in its wake, has entered a period of unrestrained capitalistic/materialistic frenzy such as had never been before. This is why he's so obsessed with his older brother "the phony." Holden Caufield is walking through an American landscape bloated with anti-Communist rhetoric and mythmaking at an official level and completely obsessed wit material security and consumer power unofficially. The latter sickens him when contrasted with the former.

Holden Caufield wasn't meant as an Everyman for Alienated Youth for all time - why do you think Salinger retreated so completely? In part, as far as we know, it was because of the willful insistence of its fans upon seeing it as being about them.

No one identifies with Gatsby. If for no other reason, I prefer Gatsby b/c I don't come to it with generations' worth of received wisdom about how much I'll identify with its MC - said wisdom generally donated by pretentious and immature shits like Winona Rider and guys who pay too much attention to (indie) rock lyrics.

Also, Gatsby is much better written.

[arkin]

Both great books. I voted Catcher because I enjoyed it more. That is all.

[Finn McCool]

That's its problem (with Catcher) - everyone who reads it reads into it and comes away sure it was written about their great alienation. No one identifies with Gatsby.

Thanks for clearing that up. Hey, how else do we feel about art? Well, I know one thing, sir, and that's indie rock! Indie rock! Indie rock! Indie rock! And shorts! Shorts! Shorts! Shorts! Pffffft.

[M_Rots]

I think I'd be offended by Alan's response if: 1. It read as anything apart from sucking Simakos's dick 2.It made sense.

[richard]

I always believed that Catcher was non-fiction at its best.

oh really? i would like to hear more about the real life adventures of holden caulfield.

catcher is all right, but i never latched onto it like a lot of people. gatsby, on the other hand, is my favorite book.

Wow, I'm Burnt.

Fixed.

[vamos]

Gatsby