The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy: A Book for Bastards, Morons, and Madmen

The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy: A Book for Bastards, Morons, and Madmen

The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy: A Book for Bastards, Morons, and Madmen

The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy: A Book for Bastards, Morons, and Madmen

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Overview

Few novels have had more influence on individuals and literary culture than J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Published in 1951 and intended by Salinger for adults (early drafts were published in the New Yorker and Colliers), the novel quickly became championed by youth who identified with the awkwardness and alienation of the novel’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Since then the book and its reclusive author have been fixtures of both popular and literary culture. Catcher is perhaps the only modern novel that is revered equally by the countless Americans whom Holden Caulfield helped through high school and puberty and literary critics (such as the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik who insisted as recently as 2010 that Catcher is a "perfect" twentieth-century novel).

One premise of The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy is that the ease and sincerity with which readers identify with Holden Caulfield rests on Salinger’s attention to the nuances and qualities of experience in the modern world. Coupled with Salinger’s deft subjective, first-person style, Holden comes to seem more real than any fictional character should. This and other paradoxes raised by the novel are treated by authors who find answers in philosophy, particularly in twentieth-century phenomenology and existentialism--areas of philosophy that share Salinger’s attention to lived, as opposed to theorized, experience. Holden’s preoccupation with “phonies,” along with his constant striving to interpret and judge the motives and beliefs of those around him, also taps into contemporary interest in philosophical theories of justice and Harry Frankfurt’s recently celebrated analysis of "bullshit."

Per Salinger’s request, Catcher has never been made into a movie. One measure of the devotion and fanatical interest Catcher continues to inspire, however, is speculation in blogs and magazines about whether movie rights may become available in the wake of Salinger’s death in 2010. These articles remain purely hypothetical, but the questions they inspire--Who would direct? And, especially, Who would star as Holden Caulfield?--are as vivid and real as Holden himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780812698022
Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date: 10/09/2012
Series: Popular Culture and Philosophy , #71
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 567 KB

About the Author

Keith Dromm: Is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Louisiana Scholars' College, Northwestern State University and author Wittgenstein on Rules and Nature (2008).
Heather Salter: Is Instructor in the Department of Language and Communication at Northwestern State University in Louisiana

Table of Contents

Citations to The Catcher in the Rye vii

Are You a Phony? A Self-Test ix

All That David Copperfield Kind of Crap xi

Lawyers and Other Phonies 1

1 Mixed Drinks and Mixed Motives Nic Bommarito 3

2 The Most Terrific Liar You Ever Saw in Your Life Don Fallis 11

3 Love and Squalor at the Antolinis' Stijn De Cauwer 23

4 You Can't Teach Somebody How to Really Dance Rick Mayock 37

Holden's Rules for Crumby Stuff 53

5 Holden in Love Elizabeth Olson Charles Taliaferro 55

6 Holden and Some Very Crumby Stuff Keith Dromm 63

7 The Moral Call and the Moral Catch Guy Pinku 77

8 Holden Onto What's Right Jamie Carlin Watson 87

Where Do the Ducks Go? 99

9 The Elderly Teenager Marcus Schulzke 101

10 The Sickness unto Barfing Dale Jacquette 113

11 Being and Phoniness Russell Manning 127

12 Holden and Other Lunatics Jan Whitt 139

Salinger's Trash and All 151

13 Censorship in the Rye Donna Marie Smith 153

14 The Case Against Salinger's Trash Claudia Franziska Brühwiler 165

15 Is Holden Mentally Ill? Michael Cundall 175

16 Calling Salinger Up Keith Dromm Heather Salter 189

Phonies, Bastards, Morons, and Madmen 203

Goddam Hot-Shots 205

Index 209

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