Dissing Holden Caulfield
Ross Douhat at The American Scene offers a short list of "harmful books" to counter the recent, rather silly list of "harmful books" at Human Events.
My favorites:
2) Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Did the writings of Emerson lead to genocide, war, or oversize budget deficits? Probably not. Is Emerson the patron saint of all that is windy, self-important, vain and pleased-with-itself in American culture? I say yes. Plenty of American writers have made a religion out of democracy, but Emerson got there first, did it in an overblown style that's easily confused with eloquence, and earned eternal popularity for his efforts. He's practitioner of the higher humbug who never got caught, and the godfather of every American charlatan, Left and Right. He gave us Ayn Rand and John Dewey, The Celestine Prophecy and Tony Robbins, and his pernicious influence will always be with us.
4) Catcher in the Rye. Not because it's a mediocre book (though it is), not because it's filled with bad language or anything silly like that, and certainly not because I have anything against poor sad J.D. Salinger. No, Holden Caulfield's story makes the list because it was one of the earliest and most enduring expressions of the unfortunate twentieth century cult of adolescence, and for the last fifty years its portrait of the teenager as a holy cynic has shaped middle-schoolers' expectations for how they should expect to feel and behave during adolescence, and not for the better. (Plus it paved the way for the present slew of bad, "realistic" young-adult novels.)
I concur.
My favorites:
2) Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Did the writings of Emerson lead to genocide, war, or oversize budget deficits? Probably not. Is Emerson the patron saint of all that is windy, self-important, vain and pleased-with-itself in American culture? I say yes. Plenty of American writers have made a religion out of democracy, but Emerson got there first, did it in an overblown style that's easily confused with eloquence, and earned eternal popularity for his efforts. He's practitioner of the higher humbug who never got caught, and the godfather of every American charlatan, Left and Right. He gave us Ayn Rand and John Dewey, The Celestine Prophecy and Tony Robbins, and his pernicious influence will always be with us.
4) Catcher in the Rye. Not because it's a mediocre book (though it is), not because it's filled with bad language or anything silly like that, and certainly not because I have anything against poor sad J.D. Salinger. No, Holden Caulfield's story makes the list because it was one of the earliest and most enduring expressions of the unfortunate twentieth century cult of adolescence, and for the last fifty years its portrait of the teenager as a holy cynic has shaped middle-schoolers' expectations for how they should expect to feel and behave during adolescence, and not for the better. (Plus it paved the way for the present slew of bad, "realistic" young-adult novels.)
I concur.
posted by Kate Marie | 11:37 AM | Permalink
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2 comments
2 Comments:
Unable to resist the hype about it, CIV wasted precious hours reading "The Celestine Prophecy." I kept expecting it to get better and felt cheated when it didn't. If Emerson is responsible, then he owes me big time.
I checked both lists and was surprised that nobody cited Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care as a harmful book. I thought this book is what turned everyone in the 60s into hippies.
"I thought this book is what turned everyone in the 60s into hippies."
-- If that's true, I'm glad I never read it, though I think my husband is a Dr. Spock child. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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