Togusa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
standalonehuman) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
retrospec2018-08-10 04:53 am
standalonehuman) wrote in retrospec2018-08-10 04:53 am
Entry tags:
Literature Review
Hitori Togusa shared a photo.
8/11 near Apprassage
Catcher in the Rye, in English. Retrospec sent me this one a while back, but I had to read this thing in high school. World lit. Hated it then, but apparently it's important now.
It bothers me that I'm starting to understand it on a re-read. Holden has absolutely everything going for him, but chooses to try as hard as he can to not engage with society around him. Back in high school, I thought it was just a morality tale, a spook story for kids, scare them into figuring their lives out or turn out like him.
And then we all get dropped into a situation where it would be so easy to do exactly what Holden wishes he could. To decide that this life doesn't matter, and turn yourself deaf-mute to the implications. But even that wouldn't get him what it wants, would it?
Question one is, what keeps you going? Keeps you paying attention to the world around you?
Second question comes back to Retrospec's latest game. Anybody else get a jigsaw puzzle?
"Turn him to any cause of policy, the Gordian Knot of it he will unloose, familiar as his garter."
Henry V, Act 1 Scene 1. The Archbishop describing how much Henry has changed as soon as he had to take the throne, going from a layabout of a prince to a sharp statesman of a king. It's really just a framing scene, telling the audience about the time that passed between plays. Odd quote to pull out.
So the last question is, what does that mean to anybody else?
no subject
but i understand why it isn't for everyone
i only have an answer to your first question so far
i tried very hard to shut the world out for a long time
but in the end that didn't help make my pain go away
so i decided my life was going to be beautiful instead
so beautiful it'll burn your eyes out
and you can't have that without awareness of the world
so i guess i need that in order to live as i want to live
even if that means accepting the bad things along with the good
there's beauty to be found in terrible things too
no subject
I'm sorry you had to hurt to find it, but that is an amazing way of looking at the world. And I agree with you, even as I try to prevent as many terrible things as I can. There can be beauty.
Does how you live end up inspiring other people?
no subject
keep this up and i may blush
i always liked the main character even if a lot of people tend to not
unreliable narrators have always appealed to me
as does the idea of stories from perspectives of people that aren't explicitly good people
i don't know if people are inspired by the way i live
but i do hope that i inspire them in some way
i'm not very good at my job otherwise
no subject
Don't get me wrong, I don't think all stories have to have a reliable perspective or a likeable narrator, but Holden, specifically, annoys me.
Do I get to ask what your job is, then? I'll point out, first, that my job is Police Detective, in case that changes your answer.
no subject
especially with people coming and going
there was someone else with my surname here for a while though
maybe you talked to him
holden is an annoying character
i don't know if he's supposed to be likeable
and don't worry
i'm an artist, it isn't as though i have much to hide
i had a show on at the gallery this spring
no subject
H-unh, that sounds familiar. Say, do you know Koutarou Takao? He's another artist, but I don't know all his friends.
no subject
i imagine that's something like having a police officer pull in behind you while you drive
you haven't done anything wrong
but suddenly you're absolutely positive that there's a body in the trunk
along with about eighty pounds of cocaine
you know there isn't but for that brief moment there absolutely is
i can't say i've met that person
though i'm definitely making note of the name
are they close to you?
no subject
Koutarou's my best friend! He's a great artist, I got to room with him in college, so I got to see a lot of his development, and the stuff he experimented with. To be fair, he still experiments, he hasn't gotten locked in to one style to only do things that way. I think he's got a lot to teach and a lot to learn.
no subject
i'm always interested in talking to other creative sorts
though we don't always see eye to eye on things
it's always interesting to see a perspective on things that i hadn't considered
no subject
Koutarou's main is painting, but he has branched into wood carving lately, of all mediums.