Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye, is just the sort of book one should not read while going through a depression. Well I did just that during the last weekend and as expected, it left me more depressed than when I had begun. But then like its protagonist Holden Caulfield, I sort of started enjoying my depression. It's fun to view events through a pessimistic lens, coz then its tough to get dissappointed. If things go bad you say, "hey, I told you." If they go really, really bad you say, "hey, I told you twice over." You've got it all covered if you are a pessimist!

Well, the book was fun. The thing about good movies and books is that you start empathizing with their protagonists. A friend of mine (Rahul Mulukutla to be specific) pointed it out to me the first time. He asked me to notice how people behaved in the loo during the interval of a blockbuster movie. I observed and he was true. If it was a Spiderman or an action-hero movie, you'd have the menfolk behaving all macho and chivalrous through their mannerisms and speech. If it were a cop or a spy movie with the CIA-FBI type characters then you'd have folks acting all fidgety and secretive. If it were a James Bond movie, no questions asked - everyone goes all smooth and stylish as hell.

Now, coming back to my point about the book. Since the book is so well written (it's a classic for God's sake) I was compelled to identify with the character of the protagonist, Holden Claufield. In fact, it is not difficult to identify with him, he's your archetypical confused adolescent loser. He represents a phase everyone goes through while growing up. It's hard for the loser in you not to empathize with Holden. That probably explains the universal popularity of this book. If all those block buster positive-thinking-self-leadership books are one side of the coin, this is the other side. The loser in you is as ubiquitous as the gung-ho chest-thumping wannabe winner and this book for a change, presents the perspective of the loser. It is tough not to get drawn to it.

Hmm....such scrawling does throw out interesting insights. I guess I now have a slighlty better understanding of why kids of my brother's age are so cynical and irritable. He is better now, but a year back when he was 16-17 years old, boy, our man was a keg of dynamite with a short fuse. I guess that is the age when you are at the peak of the Holden syndrome. It's when you start developing a strong sense of your own world-view and everything and everyone that doesn't subscribe to your outlook gets classified as the enemy. The loud and violent types air their opinions openly, whilst the silent and brooding types tend to be more creative and self-destructive in venting their frustrations.

I guess I'll stop here...will complete this blog some other time...cheers!