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Catcher in the Rye: That Time a Banned Book Changed My Life

9/27/2016

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I discovered J.D. Salinger’s seminal novel of teenage angst when I was in eighth grade. At the time I didn’t know anything about it other than the fact that it was widely considered to be a “literary classic”.

The cover provided no clues as to the book’s contents. It was simply a blank, maroon cover with the title and author’s name in gold Times New Roman capitalized. And the same on the back. There was no synopsis, no blurbs hailing it as a masterpiece, nothing except the author’s credit and that title.

Catcher in the Rye. What did that lousy title even mean anyway?

Even without really knowing anything about the novel, I felt compelled to read it. Not because I had to for school, because I wanted to. So I did. I don’t know exactly what it was about the mysterious little book that drew me in. It was probably that title.

I just had to know what the hell it meant. 

By this point in my life I already had a lot of books under my belt, but almost all of them were fantastical in one way or another. It was a lot of sci-fi, sword & sorcery, and, like most horror-obsessed kids of my generation, the complete works of Stephen King.

Catcher in The Rye was to be my first foray into “serious” adult literature. 

As a middle-schooler looking to expand my literary horizons, the idea of reading many of the so-called “classics” was a daunting one. Most of them were great, thick, books with impossibly small print in order to cram as many words on each page as possible. And although written in English, they seemed foreign to me. The language they used was somehow even more dense than the physical book in which held it. Many of these works were still intimidating to me when I had to read them in college years later, let alone as a thirteen year-old looking to read for pleasure.

But this book was different. It was short, especially when compared to the massive books I had recently tackled including, It and The Stand by the aforementioned Mr. King. Not to mention the print was normal sized. This was book I could easily digest, and I knew I could get through it, even it was a complete bore.

(Did I mention I have this thing about finishing a book once I start?)

Like I said, I had no idea what to expect when I started reading it. I certainly didn’t anticipate that it would completely change my life.

But it did. Like in a big way…

From the first paragraph my mind was blown wide open. It not only changed my whole perspective on what literature could be, it changed the way I looked at myself in relation to the world.

This was heavy stuff.

Of the countless books I had read up to this point, even the ones written in first person, none of them felt like they were speaking directly to me. Not really anyway.

They spoke to me in general sense. I was merely a passive witness to the narrator telling their story. This was different. I felt like Holden Caulfield was speaking directly to me personally, in a language I could understand and relate to. In fact, it was pretty much the same language my friends and I used when we were alone together, cuss words and all.

​It is ironic that the main reason this book is one of the most frequently challenged and banned of all time is the language. Because without it, this book wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact on me. The fact that Holden spoke so bluntly and realistically is exactly why his words resonated so much.

​One of the most heartbreaking things about adolescence is realizing that your idealized childhood perception of the world doesn’t really exist. For the first time you realize that there are a lot of Phonies, and life doesn’t always have a happy ending. It’s like a breath of fresh air for a young person dealing with this new sense of uncertainty to hear a voice that echoes their own, processing similar things in the same way. That language is part of what makes this book uniquely qualified as gateway to literature for disaffected youth.
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Holden didn’t just talk like me, he felt like me. He was lost and confused, disillusioned with the looming idea of adulthood as the candy-colored façade of his childhood slowly eroded.

Suddenly I didn’t feel so alone in the world.

But I think the thing about Holden that connected with me most was the fact that in spite of being so heavy-hearted, he was consistently hilarious. I mean really funny. I found myself laughing out loud throughout pretty much the entire book and I immediately locked in on the idea that despair could be tempered with humor. It most certainly informed my own artistic endeavors later in life when I pursued my own writing and embarked on the journey of becoming a stand-up comic.

In addition to providing me with a new perspective on myself and the world at large, reading Catcher in the Rye for the first time also made me realize that fiction doesn’t have to be fantasy in order to be engrossing. In fact, sometimes realism can be even more compelling. Nor does it have to fit neatly into one box. It can be humorous and sad, nihilistic and inspiring, heartwarming and gut-wrenching, or all of the above at the same time.

Plus, I finally learned what the hell that lousy title was all about…

Neil Young explored similar themes of teenage disillusionment in the song, "Sugar Mountain", written on his nineteenth birthday. Here's a performance of it from the 1979 concert movie, Rust Never Sleeps.
Banned Books Week 2016: Celebrating our Freedom to Read (September 29th – October 1st)

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
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T For Texas, T For (Superfly) TNT 

5/23/2014

4 Comments

 
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Don’t mess with Texas?

Right about now Texas better be worried about messing with me.

Every time somebody mentions Texas, I’m "Superfly TNT"!

Seriously you guys, I’m really pissed at Texas.

Texas took my friends away. And I’m not just talking any friends. I’m talking the best of the best, like that Taekwondo movie with Eric Roberts and James Earl Jones.

I’m talking about the kind of friends you share the experience of transitioning into adulthood with. The kind that you can call without judgement to pick you up at a random Wawa at 3 A.M. if you’re having a rough night. The kind of friends you sing karaoke with EVERY weekend for 2 years. (One of one of my all-time favorite memories is performing a searing duet of AC/DC’s Big Balls with my friend Beth while she was 9 months pregnant with her first child. I still get weepy thinking about it…) You know the kind of friends I’m talking about...

These are the kind of friends who introduce you to your wife and soul mate, with whom you later start a family that means more to you than you thought anything in the world ever could. And your friends have their own family now too, who they love just as much as you love your family. And it’s fun and exciting to experience THAT together, just like was fun and exciting to hang out and party together when you were younger.

Except now instead of seeing each other every weekend, you see each other every few months. You’d like to see each other more, but you all have a lot more responsibility now, so you get together when you can. And it’s not like they live in another state or anything, right?

Then Texas comes into the picture...

...with it’s big skies, it’s big cars, and it’s big, stupid cowboy hats. And it’s big job promotions for your friend Dan…

A promotion so good, that Dan and his wife Beth make the tough decision to move to Texas because of the opportunity it affords them to secure a future for their family. And, even though you’re really happy for them, you’re kinda sad too. 
Because you start to do the math...

If Pat & Beth (Did I mention my wife’s name is Beth too?) see their friends who live 25 miles away an average of 5 times a year, how many times a year will they see them if they move 1,500 miles away.

The answer is…

Actually, I have no idea what the answer is. I’m not that good at math. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to be less.

So yeah. I’m pretty pissed off at Texas.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really know anything about Texas except for the fact that The Alamo doesn’t have a basement. I decided that if my friends are going to be living there, I should learn a little bit about it. So, I decided to do a little research. Call it a background check...

And I have to be honest, what I found was quite disturbing....

For instance, did you know it is still a hanging offense in Texas to steal cattle or to put graffiti on someone else’s cow?

Still perfectly legal to eat them though! 

Thank your lucky stars!   

Speaking of stars…

They say the stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas. Do you know why?

There’s no pesky ozone layer blocking the view!

Texas is the nation’s largest producer of greenhouse gasses. If it were a country, it would rank as the world’s 7th largest producer.

Texas was an independent nation from 1836 to 1845. When it was annexed in 1845, it retained the right to fly its flag at the same height as the national flag.

Insecure much, Texas?

Dr Pepper was invented in Texas. Dr Pepper was a huge contributor to my childhood obesity, which in turn resulted in me never getting laid in high school.  

Thanks for nothing!

There is a museum in Texas celebrating the invention of barbed wire! Can you believe that? Who’s that into barbed wire? I hate barbed wire! I don’t know about you guys, but personally I would like to be able to scale a fence without tearing my trousers.

WTF, Texas?

Fritos Pie is a popular snack food in Texas. It consists of a bag of Fritos mixed with chili, onions and cheese eaten straight from the bag. And although I admit that I don’t have any hard data to support it, this only reinforces my theory that Texas produces more diarrhea than any other state in the union.

The word “Texas” was the Spanish pronunciation “Tejas” of the Hasinai Indian word meaning “friends.”  In fact, the Texas state motto is “friendship.”  

Today the Hasinai Indians are all but extinct.

Way to break the “Bro Code”, Texas. It’s supposed to be boys before Manifest Destiny...  

Pretty scary stuff, eh?

I have to admit, after my research, I’m more distraught about Dan & Beth moving there than ever. But I’m going to try and give Texas the benefit of the doubt. Because although I will miss them dearly, I do sincerely want my friends to be happy and I truly hope that Texas turns out to be a great place for them to raise their family.

Plus, I can’t wait to visit, and make fun of it in person…

Personal feelings asides, I have to admit that Texas has produced a lot of great music over the years.  Here's a Spotify playlist featuring  some of the amazing musicians who hail from "The Lone Star State". It is interesting to note that although the genres vary from blues, to country, to hip-hop and beyond, there is an undercurrent of menace that seems to run through much of the music to come out of Texas.
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    Author

    Pat Kelly is a freelance writer and sometimes stand-up comedian, He's also a devoted husband and father of two who suffers from excessive body hair.

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