Times are CHANGING!
I don't pretend to understand what teenagers are up to these days, because I suspect a lot of it involves the MTV, MySpace, and for some reason, the Disney Channel, and I don't do any of that stuff. But I don't think I shouldn't be able to understand teenagers, because at 23, really, I'm practically still an adolescent. Yes, yes, we all play at being old, moan and gripe about our inevitable descent down the hill, until we cross a bucket and kick it, but, really, at 23, I know I'm young, and I feel like I'm young. What I mean is I do not think the good years of my life are over, and I firmly believe I have many, many great things left to do and experience. In other words, I am still fully drunk on the invincibility of youth.
So it shocks me something terrible to find out that teens these days do not relate to the seminal "The Catcher in the Rye". They say that they "don't get it" and that Holden, HOLDEN!, is "crazy" and "weird". My god.
I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. When we read that book senior year, I don't think many people "got it". But I did! I "got it" in junior high when I first read it. And I thought every teen the world over would understand it. Because as a teen, how do you not identify with Holden? And his anger, and sadness, and complete dissociation from adults, society, even his peers. Isn't that exactly what being a teenager is like? Being angry, and sad, and feeling completely misunderstood? I've always thought the book was quite timeless, because aren't teenagers always like this? Isn't growing up always like this? For a teenager, what is there not to "get" in the book?
Also, the fact that it is frequently banned from schools should make it absolutely essential reading to teenagers everywhere, wouldn't you think?
And for all those kids that claim the "emo" lifestyle as their own, please, they do not know "emo" if they do not get "Catcher in the Rye".
Outrageous! The world is now divided into those who do and don't "get" the "The Catcher in the Rye".
So it shocks me something terrible to find out that teens these days do not relate to the seminal "The Catcher in the Rye". They say that they "don't get it" and that Holden, HOLDEN!, is "crazy" and "weird". My god.
I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. When we read that book senior year, I don't think many people "got it". But I did! I "got it" in junior high when I first read it. And I thought every teen the world over would understand it. Because as a teen, how do you not identify with Holden? And his anger, and sadness, and complete dissociation from adults, society, even his peers. Isn't that exactly what being a teenager is like? Being angry, and sad, and feeling completely misunderstood? I've always thought the book was quite timeless, because aren't teenagers always like this? Isn't growing up always like this? For a teenager, what is there not to "get" in the book?
Also, the fact that it is frequently banned from schools should make it absolutely essential reading to teenagers everywhere, wouldn't you think?
And for all those kids that claim the "emo" lifestyle as their own, please, they do not know "emo" if they do not get "Catcher in the Rye".
Outrageous! The world is now divided into those who do and don't "get" the "The Catcher in the Rye".