Salinger's Catcher

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye was quite an enjoyable read. For all who are fearful of extremely long reads, this one is quite a short one and is packed full with reasons why it is a classic. I know this was a Year 11 high school text in the English syllabus but I never did mainstream English so, here I am ticking a must-read off my list.


Much like Franklin's My Brilliant Career, I absolutely hated the narrator of TCR, Holden Caulfield. The consistently pre-assumed judgements he makes on people are ridiculously irritating despite how it makes reading the book so much quicker. After reading several analyses on this novel, I've concluded that Salinger's attempt at dealing with youth relations and issues are quite exaggerated and dramatic. That being said, a normal teenager's life would probably be too mundane to base a novel on. 


Salinger's use of stream of consciousness is extremely effective in this novel. As the novel is written in first person, it is debatable as to how reliable Caulfield is as a narrator. His biased perspectives on people and self-proclaimed 'better person' makes it difficult for me to sympathise with him being kicked out of Pencey. He claims others are such phonies, and that he but in saying so, reflects the exact image upon himself. Using this narrative technique is extremely clever of Salinger in highlighting the flaws and issues Caulfield is struggling with as he deals with aging and the events in his life. 


Despite how much I disliked Caulfield however, I did thoroughly enjoy the novel as a whole. It  was engaging and the plot developed in a slow and steady manner, just how I like it. Sometimes I feel a clear climax is too unrealistic, which is why I suppose I am drawn towards longer reads or slower-paced novels. But that is just sometimes. 


There's a part in the novel I thoroughly enjoyed reading and I thought I would share it with you readers. Allie is Holden's brother and he is someone I feel who brings Holden back to his senses a little even though he has passed away. 


"When the weather's nice, my parents go out quite frequently and stick a bunch of flowers on old Allie's grave. I went with them a couple of times, but I cut it out. In the first place, I certainly don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead guys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice- twice- we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on the radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner- everybody except Allie."


Caulfield talks a fair bit about what drives him crazy throughout the novel, but when I read that, I felt his anger and the significance of his frustration. And after that, I didn't put down the novel until I got to the end.

Alignment Transformation

I'm really no good at basing a life-experience on a specific verse. One of my personal goals is to successfully memorise Matthew 11:28-30 (Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." and at the moment, I have not gone past "Take my yoke upon you" because I end up muddling all the adjectives up. Nonetheless, having v.28 in my head is encouraging enough that I find out the rest of it. So, I do encourage memorising Scriptures.


In the last few hours I have been home, I will not lie, I have experienced immense joy. As siblings usually do, my brother and I often fight and argue over petty issues. I would say something that would hurt him, and he would do the same. But something I've realised today, is I have spent more time with my brother in these two weeks, than in the months before since the year began. Not only have we spent more time together, but also, we've been talking more and mind you, my brother is 11 years old with the attention span of a peanut. I won't claim we didn't fight, but there is a sense of joy and peace at home, and bitterness has definitely left my heart. I've found in me a secret compartment of patience and understanding to give to my brother, something I may not have had before.


I've tried to narrow down what it is that has resulted in this change and I've realised, it's none other than God Himself. That really has been the only change in my life since. I won't call it a rejuvenation of faith because I have always believed and never lost faith in the loving nature and deity of Christ, but it definitely was a re-alignment of the steering wheel in my life. I dropped am dropping the bad habits as I go, still learning and still growing, but I thank God that He has revealed to me the problems in me which I need to fix. And instead of trying to fix myself on my own, I'm submitting it to God and drawing near to Him for His help. And as I drew near to God, sure enough, He drew near to me in my life and every issue and concern I had fell into place in His hands (James 4:7-8). Every problem I worried about, I prayed and committed it to the Lord and there's peace. Just satisfying peace. (Matthew 6:32-34)


I'm not saying I have it altogether, that I've got the Golden Ticket to living the perfect life on Earth. I'll probably have another low moment eventually, but while I'm inspired and ever so grateful for the amazing grace of God, I simply want to encourage you who are reading this that I am experiencing the transformation of God, being moulded into His image. It will be tough but it will be for the better. 


I have a t-shirt which says "Be patient with me, for God is still working on me." Never have I understood that statement more, or rather the weight of that. I ashamedly admit that I may not have let God work on me all the time. Maybe I should wear it out more. 


Praise God for wonderful friends and family who have the patience of God in them to deal with me.

The Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

This one's a classic. When I first mustered up enough courage to start buying books off Book Depository, I spent a good amount of time looking at Top 100 lists, books we must read before we die and all that jazz. Woolf's novel made it to at least 80% of the sheer amount of lists I looked at. So I decided I would get around to reading it and I did! (pat on the back for myself)


The novel follows the progression of a day in the eyes of two characters, Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh. It really is quite ingenious the way the novel's been written in terms of its narration. The 'stream of consciousness' technique is frustrating to read but at the same time, so personal it's quite frightening. As a reader, often we take things for granted and simply understand the perspective of the narrator and accredit it for what he/she is worth. However, sometimes narrators aren't always as nice as we perceive them to be (I am reading The Catcher in the Rye at the moment, and I assure you, Holden Caulfield is a terrible narrator). 


What I really do enjoy reading in this text is the discovery of both narrators from each other. Peter reveals something about Clarissa from long ago and likewise. It's so biased, but yet, so honest. You just really don't know who to believe- does Clarissa really have issues? Can she not hold parties simply because she likes it? Must there always be an insecurity interpreted through her actions? It's really quite mind-provoking. 


From the get-go, I was so curious to know who Clarissa's husband was, and to find that he was a 'safe' man to marry, it was quite disappointing. But that's how it always is, isn't it? She picks the 'safe' choice over the man she should have married. I entitled my little review as 'The Dalloway' because Clarissa in the end, adopted his name and married him- and it ultimately is a choice she made, regardless of her feeling that she lacked the choice. Oh, the irony!


For a short book of less than 150 pages, I did however find it a bit tiresome to read somewhere in the middle but one must persevere and it was totally worth it. In page 42 of my edition, I stumbled upon one of the most satisfying passages I'll ever read. It's the words used and the rising-and-falling of the phrases which really leave me just in awe, comprehending what I've just read.


"Nothing exists outside us except a state of mind, he thinks; a desire for solace, for relief, for something outside these miserable pigmies, these feeble, these ugly, these craven men and women. But if he can conceive of her, then in some sort she exists, he thinks, and advancing down the path with his eyes upon sky and branches he rapidly endows them with womanhood; sees with amazement how grave they become; how majestically, as breeze stirs them, they dispense with a dark flutter of the leaves charity, comprehension, absolution, and then, flinging themselves suddenly aloft, confound the piety of their aspect with a wild carouse." (p.41)


Mind-blown.


[On a sidenote, I received two Hemingway and Dostoevsky novels in the mail today! I'm excited!]

Bus Girl

I've always liked children and seeing them often brings joy. There's just something about their simplicity and innocence which really makes me smile and today, on the bus, a little girl did just that.


I only had a glimpse of her as she walked past me but she definitely left an impression. She had jet-black eyes, pupils as large as the moon. Her dark skin of her Indian descent brought out those big eyes even more. She had little, but distinct curly black hair tied into a ponytail of whatever there is and her little hand held onto her older brother's as he took her onto the bus. 


She had a baby pink jacket on with matching shoes and a bright pink (I shan't use hot pink to describe a child) dress to go with her little backpack which would really fit my wallet and nothing else. And as I pondered for that long split-second, I just prayed that she would retain that innocence as she grows older. That this world will not corrupt her past the point of no return. That years later, she will still hold on to her big brother's hand and find comfort in him. Don't let anyone take that simplicity away from you. The world may try to throw complications and anger at you, but remember that you were once simple in the past, so you then, can be simple too.

Giving Challenge

"True prosperity is living and giving at the level to which God has called you with all your needs met by His supply." 


Challenged to give abundantly.

Memory Recovery

For approximately four months, I've been trying to remember this one word I learnt last semester in Literature. Dear fellow readers, I can now tell you what that word is, and pray I'll never forget it.

A 'circadian' novel: novel of which the plot takes place in a strict time-frame of 24 hours.

Book Issue

To keep you up to date with the books that are going through my life right now, I finished More Than A Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell about a week ago and The Monkey Mask by Dorothy Porter yesterday. Having insufficient time, I am still going through Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf but I promise I will finish it soon; I'm a third way there. I started reading A.W.Tozer's The Pursuit of God two days ago and am already inspired by it as I finished the first chapter yesterday morning. 


To take advantage of BookDep's last few days of an extra 10% off, I got my hands on five more books (it's a problem, I know):
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
- For Whom The Bells Toll by Ernest Hemingway
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe 


I think when I finish Tozer's book, I'll start reading Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller and I'll launch into The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger after Woolf. 


Mid-year readings will include:
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien 
- Ulysses by James Joyce

Juan's Diary

Diary of a Bad Year - J.M. Coetzee

Out of all the books I've read so far this semester, I think Coetzee's really hits the spot for me. When you first pick up the book and flick through it, you'll immediately realise that the structure of the book is quite different as most pages are split into two or three parts. Coetzee's clever but foreign use of two (and later on, three) simultaneous narratives is initially difficult to read but in my opinion, reflects identically the reality of life, which then makes it worth the difficulty. The reality is, everyone's interpreting the events in their lives through their own perspectives without knowing the thoughts of others unless consulted, and Coetzee's technique really accentuates this.

The novel is split into two sections, Strong Opinions and Second Diary. Strong Opinions are a collection of thoughts which the main character, J.C. or Juan, an aging intellect of great credentials, has written to be sent to a German editor for publication. The Second Diary however, are simply "soft opinions" in the words of the female protagonist, a Filipina woman named Anya. The latter part of the book are essentially thoughts which didn't make it into the publication. What is interesting through this structure is we see Juan develop through the three different narratives within the two sections; firstly, through his gradually altered undertones in his 'official' submissions for publishing (which leads him to write his 'Second Diary'), his own personal reflections on how he views himself and also how he views others, and Anya's understanding of their interactions.

There is no real 'strategy' to reading this novel despite its complicated structure. Personally, I read each narrative on each page at a time until the sentence was completed, which sometimes meant having to go over the page. Then, I would go back and read the second narrative and so on. However, other times, I would be so engaged in what is written that I'd stick to the narrative until the end of the 'opinion'. If there's a humble advice I could give to any interested readers, don't be bogged down by the unfamiliarity, don't go by a strict rule, just go with it.

The 'opinion' I personally enjoyed the most would have to be 'On the Afterlife', the only opinion which did not have two or three narratives, but simply Juan's submission. It is also the last opinion in the first section of the book, which I feel ties 'Strong Opinions' and 'Second Diary' together neatly. It is the most human writing of it all, as Juan poses all these questions which he cannot answer to himself- questions about life and death. 

"Will those who loved many enjoy a richer afterlife than those who loved few; or will our loved ones be defined as those we loved on our last day on earth, and them alone? In the latter case, will those of us who spent our last day in pain and terror and loneliness without the luxury of loving or being loved faced eternal solitude?" (p.153)

What beautifully crafted sentences; so dense but yet, so raw. And that, I feel is the satisfaction of reading this novel- that readers are privileged to see a cold, unemotional old man reveal his humanity by the end of the novel; fearing and having doubts over his life, like you and I.


For me, dear reader, I once feared the same things as J.C. but now fear no more. For I know, that when I pass this world, eternity has just begun and each day will be better than the past.

Teeth Smiling

"We aren't fobs"
"Bro-core-lee"
"Go back to Vietnam!"


Quotes taken absolutely out of context and I assure you are in no way actually insulting. 
That's why I love her :]


#sistersinChrist

Soothing Words

"Evil will seek to steal, kill, and destroy, and we will suffer the affliction of evil in the world, but we have God's promise that every circumstance will become His means of accomplishing the good He has foreordained for each of us. When the darkness closes in around us, and evil appears to gain the upper hand, trust in the sovereignty and power and goodness of God is vital to maintaining hope."


Trust in God's providence.

Contagious Happiness

Makes me smile to see her smile.


Thank you Lord for giving her joy.

Multi-tasking Stress

Dear Right-Brain,


I know you'd rather attach yourself to Ultimate-Guitar.com or WorshipTogether and jam to some awesome hits but unfortunately, I'll need you to work double-time on this because your buddy, Left-Brain is dying away after lack of use since Year 12. 

Most apologetically,

Your owner.

Dreams Written II

He was adopted as a child into our family of two, immediately becoming the precious one in our lives. He was a blondie with beautiful grey eyes and a smile that melted my heart over and over again. A scene changes and we are in a nature park where one can take residence for several days- it is a camp of some sort. He is about four or five and is having fun exploring with a friend. (All these faces are foreign to the dreamer but there is familiarity within the characters themselves.) A friend's child is at my foot and I play with her for awhile. Approximately 30-40 minutes go by and I decide it time to go inside and call out for him to come back but there is no reply. I wonder where he has wandered off to and anxiously calls out even louder. Again, no reply. I naturally panic. My heartbeat is racing at a hundred miles per hour and I am moving at the speed of light, or at least it feels so. (I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the child, apologies.) I call out his name and tears are trickling gushing down my face as I flap my arms around like a wild chicken as though to give me more speed to look for him. I am repetitively praying, "God, please let me find him, please, please..." But what felt like three hours of searching injected a feeling which sank in my heart and I fall to the ground- I've lost him. I pleaded with God for another chance, it was by grace that he was brought into my arms as a babe and maybe this once, I felt, by grace, he could be in my arms again. Suddenly a friend's child of older age runs towards me and points in a direction with a look on his face. The fear I have in my mind, heart and soul mutes all sounds but I run in that direction. And at the end of the little dusty assumption of a road is him looking exhausted but as though he had been crying too. I quickly cradle him and a million questions run through my head but only one is audible: "What happened?" you play wit her, uncle X tell me she is your real family, i am not real. My heart broke from part anger part sadness- that I had to subject my child to such pain of rejection but also that someone had manipulated my child to feel that he was not good enough. I reassured him as he was in my arms and a small smile crept to his face.


(I woke up feeling relieved, as though a few seconds ago my heart had just been stabbed and was healed again. I as the dreamer was omnipresent at certain stages of this dream therefore knew beforehand that someone had spoken to the child about the lack of belonging to the family but the chase was fully first-person. Note however that in this dream, I was not the main character. All the characters were foreign to me and even more blurred a vision since I have woken up. The visuals have fade but it has been thirty minutes since I woke and the emotions and thoughts are still vivid in my heart.)

Revelations Revealed

After a read of a friend's blog, I've decided that I do belong to the 1920/30/40s of the world. Just the culture of society really intrigues me and that regardless of how I am turning 20 this year, I am still at heart, a very old oldie. But I shall leave it at that because I don't want to spill the unimportant details of my life over this blog. Lesson learnt. Old blog deleted.


&;


The 'X' Chapter of the Great Story


It really was bright. I really wasn't going to miss it. I stared in awe at the beauty of the New Kingdom just as it was written, "It shone with the glory of God". Nothing else could compare in light and in purity. My feet were frozen for that split second but the beauty of it all melted the ice into the puddles I splashed through as I took that step forward. 


I finally got to the popular city walls of twelve different precious stones (which I unfortunately cannot list out for you) and it is beyond sparkly. I run my fingers along the textures of the wall and am amazed at how different all the colours and textures of the stones are but how they present themselves as one wall. I am pacing around this wall when suddenly stood before me, the pearly gates of heaven. All that everyone of the Old Earth has spoken of is here before me, just no clouds. I enter knowing it will be amazing, but what stood before me and my undeserving pair of eyes, was beyond my wildest imagination.


This is Home.

Challenge Accepted

The great thing about buying things online is that they don't come all together and what happens is you end up with a series of joyful days with surprise gifts! It's like your birthday for five days in a row!


Two packages came in today- one from Koorong and one from Book Depository, both purchased with discounts (self-satisfied). 'Invisible Man' was SURPRISINGLY THICK which definitely took me by surprise, but considering the number of people in this internet-sphere who have said it was amazing, I shall challenge myself to read this along with LOTR I and the many other books I have. I shall aim to have 3 non-Christian novels read and 3 Christian books read. Challenge accepted.

I've already started listening to this because I unpacked it and chucked it into the car almost immediately on the way to uni today. Loving the EP look of the album but also, just the roadtrip feel NeedtoBreathe gives through their music. Maybe I'll even do an album review soon!

Catching the bus home always gives me time to think. Will share on today's thoughts sometime this week.