THE CATCHER IN THE RYE—A GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCE? (COMMENT). Nick and Dick Weisfelder have been commenting on THE CATCHER IN THE RYE here. Nick commented that even at the age of 14, he found the book “juvenile, unrealistic, frustrating, and pointless.” Dick comments that “Nick’s reaction is typical for his generation.” Dick is right that young people today do not react the same way to Holden Caulfield as our generation did. I posted here on the way that the Peanuts comic was enormously popular in our generation, and yet Annalisa and Nick disliked it. As I said there: “[Annalisa and Nick] couldn’t stand the patient suffering of Charlie Brown. Why did he put up with things?” I just asked Annalisa about THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. She said that she disliked it because Holden Caulfield was “too passive and complaining.”
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My objection to Charlie wasn’t his patient suffering – it was that he was really not very bright, and that the jokes simply were not funny in the slightest. If we keep talking about Peanuts and Catcher in the Rye people are going to think I’m that hated beast – the Elitist Cynic Under The Age of 30
If I had known when you asked me about Catcher in the Rye what Nick’s response was, I would’ve just said, “Seconded.” He said it better than I did. At least now I have the opportunity to say that with regards to Peanuts: I completely agree with Nick; seconded.