Reading "The Catcher in the Rye" - by Hénock Gugsa

/// Reading "The Catcher in the Rye" /// by Hénock Gugsa
===================== Back in high-school, in my teenage days, I never got around to reading J D Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye".  I'm sure many of my friends and acquaintances have read it and probably came away with some lasting impression of one sort or another.

I don't exactly know why I have never read it.  Probably, it was because I was more drawn to other books or activities.

Well,  now I am in my later years for sure; and I am determined to challenge myself to accomplish the things that I remember I never bothered to do from start to finish.  So, I have started and actually I'm two-thirds of the way reading this iconoclastic book.  To be sure,  many readers and critics have hailed it as the greatest literary exposition on America's youthful angst and self-torture.

Although, I haven't finished reading the book yet, my impressions and opinions of the leading character are already negative and  unsympathetic.  I must also confess that it has been well over three months since I borrowed the book from the library ....  I've already extended the loan three times!
 
The reason it is taking me so long, I suspect, is because I've found the book so depressing.  The main character, Holden Caulfield, is such a self-centered, egoistical, nihilist that it is very difficult to see any redeeming quality in him.  He is such a snot about everything and everybody (including sometimes himself) that you want to slap him, or walk away from him in disgust.  I know there is an irony here, and it is that I am beginning to think and sound like him.  And, this probably is the great lure of the character, and of course of the author himself.  I can say without reservation that Mr. Salinger's genius is that he has packed all this insight about alienation, frustration, and rebellion in the person of a lone young man who is undergoing serious growing pains.

In conclusion, I promise I will bravely finish reading this classic book.  I have to find out the meaning behind the title: "The Catcher in the Rye".  And maybe after that, I will think of tackling "Moby Dick"....  That was required reading in my English class at ERHS.  I think Mrs. Barrett expected  the class to read it completely, over one single week-end!

But what about my social life, Teacher?!!! 

== Postscript :  I did eventually finish reading the book.  I now declare that I am proud I did ! ==

"Freedom of Speech" - by Hénock Gugsa

"Freedom of Speech" 

- by Hénock Gugsa -

Ideally, in an ideal world, what Ms. J K Rowling* says makes complete and acceptable sense. But we are not there yet, that's utopian! ....
In the real world of today, what we are seeing is the eternal struggle between right and wrong, good and evil, etc., etc. It is not possible for one side to thrive and/or to win by allowing the other side equal footing. It is not right, it seems to me, that only one side knows this fairly well and is not squeamish about squashing the other side. 

It has actually been postulated by thinkers of yore (Socrates, Plato, etc.) that too much (unrestrained) freedom will lead to the end of democracies. I sincerely believe that we reap what we sow when we let the likes of Limbaugh, Savage, O'Reilly, the rabid evangelicals, and cuckoo birds of one kind or another to loudly run their mouths with hate and dissension.

It seems to me that reason, reasonableness, and civility have been thrown out the window, all in the name of freedom. However, I don't think that answers can be formulated if firm boundaries are delineated from the start with "either for" ,  "or against"  types of positions. 

Historically, the world has seen tyrannical governments pop up on the backs of democracies using freedom of speech; and once in power, those governments have stripped away all that freedom with goose-stepping boots. Moderation, ethical behavior, or civility are not necessarily compatible with full, unrestrained freedom of speech. And before you throw the "law of the land" ( the Constitution ) at me as an argument, please remember that laws are man-made and fragile. Their strength is dependent on how astute, learned, and wise the citizenry is!

Please understand that I am not against individualism and/or citizens' freedoms ... far from it! I am only here pointing out the dangers of people not listening to each other with all the shouting and yelling in the room. Would you allow incivility, disrespect, and chaos to rule your household if you wanted contentment of any kind in your family life?

*Ms. J K Rowling speaking at PEN America gala on 5/16/16