Invisible Monster
ggalang@theguidon.com
When I heard about J.D. Salinger’s death, my first impulse was to reread The Catcher in the Rye. It’s been four years since I last did, way back in senior high when a friend forced a yellowed and dog-eared copy down my throat, demanding I read her life’s story or it’s friendship over for us.
My reaction upon reading back then was predictable—a sixteen-year-old felt she was understood by the foul-mouthed, sarcastic dropout Holden Caulfield who also felt sorry for the phonies of world. He made being an imperfect outsider seem perfectly normal.
His story had influenced most of my brand of writers, including my spiritual mentor Chuck Palahniuk. And it was Holden’s voice that I tried to imitate in the first few short stories that I wrote. In effect, my life as a writer is partly a comical by-product of Salinger’s most famous work.
For years, the image of the preppy teenager with the red hunting cap was kept holy in my mind as the epitome of antiheroes. He was this faceless teenager whose voice is more important than his physical manifestation onscreen, untainted by any threat of Hollywood defilement even with the long list of director hopefuls, from Samuel Goldwyn to Steven Spielberg.
With Salinger’s death, however, rumors of possible movie adaptations have surfaced. I’m not really sure if there’s a chance of that happening (at least three official articles have already stated that a Catcher movie is slim, due to various reasons) but personally, I’m fearful of the consequences if it is made into a movie.
True, I’m not one to contest movies based on books (or comic books). There have been some that are better than their book counterparts. But kids nowadays are not as familiar or sympathetic with Catcher as those back in the day have been. I’ve heard a few people refer to Holden as a whiny rich brat, and I know of others who don’t know and don’t even care to know his story.
There’s even an article in The New York Times which says that Catcher is losing its appeal to audiences of today’s generation. Author Jennifer Schuessler says, “These days, adults may lament the slasher movies and dumb sex comedies that have taken over the multiplex, but back then teenagers found themselves stranded between adult things and childish pleasures.”
And given Holden’s character, can you just imagine who will portray him in a manner that will appeal to the mass generation of teenagers that has been exposed to the glitz of shows like Hannah Montana and Glee? Zac Efron? Or, heaven forbid, Robert Pattinson? It’s almost like an ironic backlash to Holden’s dislike of movies.
Not only that, but it will also be an affront to author Salinger, whose reputation as the creator of the teenage antihero is only preceded by his being a recluse, shunning fame to become one of the most private American literary authors.
Then again, the flipside of the coin would be a movie adaptation (if done just right) can remind people of the lost tradition of adolescent search for identity ala Holden. Let’s face it—movies are sometimes the only way some people can pick up a lesson.
In any case, it can be seen as a way of granting Holden’s one wish, misquoted from a Robert Burns poem—to be the catcher in the rye, saving kids from falling off the cliff and losing their innocence. Classic Salinger irony.
