Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye, Chapters 13 & 14

Chapter 13

Holden walks 41 blocks back to his hotel. Sometimes I can't tell if he's exaggerating or not, but either way I'm thinking he walked a lot. It's freezing and his hands are cold, because someone at Pencey swiped his gloves. Holden imagines what he would say to the person that took them. He even considers punching the person in the jaw. Alas, he's not at Pencey anymore so he will never get the chance.

Back at the hotel, a man named Maurice asks Holden if he's interested in a hooker - he's charging a mere $5 for her services. Holden goes for it, with a touch of self-loathing. Before the prostitute arrives at his hotel room door, Holden tidies himself up significantly - he decides this will be his big chance to practice in case he ever gets married.

The prostitute arrives, and Holden introduces himself as "Jim Steele." After this clever move, he loses his cool and tries to chat the lady up instead of doing what she was hired to do. The prostitute, who is referred to as "Old Sunny," is unhappy about this. (Since I associate the name Sunny with the youngest Baudelaire child in A Series of Unfortunate Events, this really creeps me out.) Holden continues to run his mouth and lies that he just had a big operation and is unfit for physical activity. He gives her $5 and sends her off, although she tries to argue that he owes her $10.

Chapter 14 

Holden is miserable. When he gets depressed, he talks out loud to his dead brother Allie. Because that's not psychotic or anything. "I'm kind of an atheist," he muses. We learn a lot about his religious views. He likes Jesus but the Disciples "annoy the hell out of him." I want to sit down with this kid and talk about the Bible. Is that weird?

Remember Maurice and Old Sunny? I hope so, they were heavily featured in the last chapter and the very post you're reading. They appear once more in Chapter 14 and things get a little K-razzy up in here. Maurice comes back for the $5 difference between what Holden thought he owed Old Sunny and wheat Sunny said he owed. Maurice claims he told Holden that Sunny cost $10 in the first place. Wow. Who would have imagined that a pimp would be a complete slimeball? Some panic ensues. Sunny grabs Holden's wallet and takes the $5 out herself, and Maurice beats him. Sheesh. Maybe you should have just stayed at school, kid.

-S

Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye, Chapters 11 & 12

Chapter 11

Jane Gallagher is becoming rather important now. This chapter is almost exclusively devoted to Holden's thoughts and memories about her. He felt comfortable enough with her that he told her about Allie. Apparently, she wasn't "strictly beautiful" but it's clear that he loved her. His mom, however, thought Jane and her mother were snobby and cold. From Holden's descriptions of Jane she does sound fairly cold, but he seems oblivious. He likes her edge. Rather than spend the rest of the novel thinking about Jane, Holden hops in a cab and heads to Ernie's, a Greenwich Village nightclub. I doubt this is the last we have heard about Jane, but we'll have to see.

Chapter 12

The cab smells like vomit. Thanks for that thought. Holden asks the cab driver if he knows where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter. There is a subsequent conversation about the ducks and the fish and migration habits. I am convinced this discussion is a metaphor for something, but I can't figure out just what it's all about yet. When I finish the book, either I will figure it out on my own or ask someone smarter than myself to explain it. Hmm.

Holden arrives at Ernie's and there's an actual guy named Ernie playing the piano in a really flashy way. Holden is disgusted that the audience is eating it up. I feel like the majority of people who find themselves in a seedy joint called Ernie's in the middle of the night would be exactly the type of people who would love flashy piano tricks, but I guess that doesn't make them any less disgusting. Holden ponders the people sitting around him. He describes the interactions of a couple that sound to me to be a bit like date rape. "I was surrounded by jerks," he says. I want Tumblr to give me a really snazzy hipster picture with that quote on it.

Holden runs into an old girlfriend of his brother D.B.'s: Lillian Simmons. Lillian is there with a Navy guy, "Commander Blop or something." Heh. Lillian takes pity on the dateless Holden and invites him to join them, but he would rather leave than hang out with them so off he goes. This chapter is highly quotable. I want a set of notecards that say the following piece of Holden's internal monologue: "I'm always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though."

-S

Life, Death, and Television

I have been contemplating death a lot in the past six weeks. Intellectually, I know that anything can happen at any minute, and that life, including my own, is unimaginably fragile. It still surprises me though, when someone I love is suddenly, violently, irrevocably gone. Last week, an old friend of mine was killed in a hit and run accident crossing the street outside of a bar. Gone.

I can’t wrap my mind around his absence, even though I have not seen nor spoken to him in months. I spent so much time, sang so many songs, shared so many bottles, baked so many pies, and laughed at so many jokes with him. I have so many memories of both throw-away moments and major life changes that I either experienced with him or that I could talk about with him. He was never judgmental or malicious. He was enthusiastic and funny. He was going to be a Spanish teacher. And now there’s a hole in the universe where he should be.

I have a tendency to filter my experiences through pop culture I consume. I have been meaning to write a post about Six Feet Under (SFU) and how its treatment of death has shaped my attitude towards life. This seems like an appropriate time. SFU was the most honest look at how people deal with mortality I have ever seen. The title of the finale alone, articulated what I imagine the end to be like: Everyone’s Waiting. Below, in no particular order, are my favorite moments involving music from one of the greatest serials television ever offered.

We have to live to honor the dead, and we have to learn to live with all the trappings of being physical, ephemeral beings. Somewhere, though, is the energy that makes us work. My limited understanding of physics reminds me that energy can’t be created nor destroyed, it just changes. Nate, I know you’re in all these places, always.

Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 10

I've hit the double digits! I still don't know where this novel is going, but I still want to find out.

Chapter 10

Holden decides to check out the sleazy hotel's sleazy club, the Lavender Room. That name makes it sound more like a tea shop than a nightclub. He really just wants to call his little sister, but he knows his parents would answer the phone and he is not willing to talk to them. Plus, it's still the middle of the night. He instead tells us how wonderful Phoebe is. She's ten years old, loves films, and tends to be too emotional. Coming from Holden Caulfield, King of Angst, I find that last descriptor entertaining.

The Lavender Room features a crappy band. Holden tries to get a drink,  but his age is questioned so he settles for a Coke. There are three girls sitting at the table next to him, and he quickly recognizes that they are incredibly stupid but he buys them all drinks, dances with them, and compliments the shit out of them anyway. The bar closes. The girls leave. Holden leaves. It's all fairly uneventful.

-S

Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye, Chapters 8 & 9

The action is really starting to pick up. Holden has escaped Pencey Prep and I have no idea what will happen now, but it will probably involve the types of things that make conservative parents want to ban books. This should be fun.

Chapter 8

Now that he's made his dramatic exit from the dorms, Holden realizes it's too late for a cab, so he walks to the train station. It's freezing, but luckily he doesn't have to wait long for a train. Public transit for the win! After a little while on the train, a woman gets on and sits next to Holden. After a bit of chatting, we learn that she is the mother of another Pencey Prep student - Ernest Morrow. Holden tells us Ernest is an asshat, but he also tells Ernest's mother that his name is Rudolf Schmidt, so he decides to lie to this woman for sport. In short, he tells her that Rudolf is a total charmer. I don't know why he felt the need to do this, but he seems highly entertained by pulling one over on an adult. Eventually, the woman asks the obvious question - what the hell is "Rudolf" doing on a train home two days before school lets out for Christmas? His answer: he is having a brain tumor removed. A tiny brain tumor that will only take a few minutes to remove, he says. Apparently, this lady is completely buying this obvious fabrication. What an idiot. Adults are not being shown in a particularly positive light in this novel. She wishes Holden the best and tells him to come visit her family at their beach home over the summer, and she gets off the train in Newark. (Hey! That's a real place I've been to! Was it sketchy in the 50's too?)

Chapter 9

Holden arrives at his intended destination: Penn Station in NYC. (Hey, I've been there too!) He is in the mood to call someone, and he goes to the phone booth to give someone a ring. He can't call D.B. - he's in LA. He can't call his little sister Phoebe - she's in bed by 9 PM and it's the middle of the night now. He can't call Jane Gallagher, and he can't call his old flame Sally Hayes. He almost calls an old friend from Whooton School, but then he remembers he doesn't like that kid anyway. Holden gives up on the phone idea and calls a cab instead. Out of habit, he gives the driver his home address in NYC, but reroutes him to the Edmont Hotel. I have things figured out now. This is going to be just like The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, except with an adolescent protagonist and way more sex, alcohol, and violence. Have I called it yet? I hope Holden doesn't murder anyone. 

Once he's in his sleazy hotel room, Holden spies on some other hotel patrons through the window. They are up to some pretty weird stuff. He thinks about this for a while and remembers that he knows a former stripper through a buddy of his who went to Princeton. He gives this Seabiscuit Faith Cavendish a call, and she is angry that he called her in the middle of the night but still willing to get a drink with him in the future. I don't know how former of a stripper she is... Holden chickens out and declines her offer of meeting at a later date, deciding to instead go down to the sleazy hotel's sleazy club. It's getting all controversial-literature up in here.

-S

Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye: Chapters 6 & 7

Chapter 6

     Stradlater the studmuffin is back from his date with Jane, and he is angry. He wanted Holden to do his English composition on a house, not a baseball glove. He accuses Holden of "always doing everything backasswards," which is rude of him, but I do find it to be a delightful insult. Also, he really shouldn't be complaining since he doesn't have to do the homework now. Sheesh. I bet he's going to miss Holden more than he realizes when Holden is officially kicked out of the school in a few days. 

      Holden smokes a cigarette in the room for the sole purpose of making Stradlater mad. It's clear that Holden is anxious to hear how the date went, and he suspects something went wrong. As an aside, this is where we learn that "giving the time to" is 1950's slang for getting it on. Heh. Holden asks Stradlater if he gave the time to Jane and Stradlater literally beats him up. After what Holden describes as ten hours of this, he escapes to Ackley's room next door.

Chapter 7

      It's 11:30 PM and Holden wants Ackley to play canasta with him. Ackley isn't having it; he says that Holden is too bloody, plus he wants to attend Mass early in the morning. Holden gives up on the canasta and angles to just sleep in Ackley's missing roommate's bed, but Ackley isn't having that either - he's concerned his roommate might come back early. Holden ignores Ackley's warnings and goes for it anyway, which seems like a good call to me. We have some flashbacks to a previous double date experience with Holden and Stradlater, and it is pretty clear that Stradlater is skanky. Ew.

      In the early morning, Holden decides he will skip his last few days of school and get himself a hotel room in the city, since his parents will not receive notification of his expulsion for a while anyway. Ah, the pre-Internet days. He quickly packs up his belongings and dashes into the halls, yelling, "Sleep tight ya morons!" It would be quite the cinematic exit, but someone has left peanut shells all over the hallway floor and he almost falls on his way out. This book is like a sitcom!

Adventures in Literature: The Catcher in the Rye, Chapters 4 & 5

Chapter 4

      Holden trails Stradlater to the bathroom as Stradlater preps for a date. Stradlater is in love with himself, and at this point we've had a few references to Holden agreeing. A bromance, perhaps? Stradlater gets Holden to vaguely commit to doing his English homework for him while he's out with his lady friend. We learn that Stradlater's date is one Jane Gallagher, who used to be a neighbor of Holden's. This chapter could be subtitled "Everyone's Vaguely In Love With Each Other" because it looks like Holden is harboring some feelings for Jane. Stradlater, ever the lunkhead, can't even keep her name straight. "Not Remembering My Name" is definitely an item on my personal Oh-No-No list, but Jane is either unaware of this or less picky than I am. Oh well. Holden feels too awkward about the situation to go say hello to Jane, so he makes Stradlater promise not to tell her that he's been kicked out of school. 

      A noteworthy part of this chapter is Holden's hat, of all things. It's a red hunting cap, purchased that morning in New York. Ackley and Stradlater have both remarked about it at this point in the story, and I bet it's a symbol for something. I haven't a guess as to what, but hopefully that will soon become clear. If this is not the case, Salinger is really into discussing this hat and it's getting a bit bizarre.

Chapter 5

      It's Saturday night at Pencey Prep. Holden is getting a little stir-crazy, so he recruits his pal Mal Brossard into taking the bus into Agerstown with him. Their wild night on the town consists of eating hamburgers, playing pinball, and then returning to their dorms early. That is my kind of party.

      Back in his room, Holden gets to work on Stradlater's English composition, writing about his brother's baseball mitt. This turns into quite the scene of exposition for the readers, as we learn Holden used to have a younger brother. Allie was two years younger than him and fifty times as intelligent, but he died of leukemia. Ouch. File that under "Maybe There Are Good Reasons For Holden To Be Cynical About Everything."