tinyways » books

Attacking the System: Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:24:26 +0000

Franny and Zooey holds inside it a most exciting dialogues, and surprisingly what is officially a dialogue, is actually a monologue, and a wonderful one it’s. When the System and its counter Movement were just born, Salinger already noticed its inner inconsistencies and dogmatic nature, which at the end made the Movement (and the 60s) eat themselves up and vomit. Here’s a part of it, a teaser and a bit of spoiler:

“… I hate the kind of blanket attack you’re making on it. I agree with you about ninety-eight per cent on the issue. But the other two per cent scares me half to death. I had one professor when I was in college – just one, I’ll grant you, but he was a big, big one – who just doesn’t fit in with anything you’ve been talking about. He wasn’t Epictetus. But he was no egomaniac, he was no faculty charm boy. He was a great and modest scholar. And what’s more, I don’t think I ever heard him say anything, either in or out of the classroom, that didn’t seem to me to have a little bit of real wisdom in it – and sometimes a lot of it. What’ll happen to him when you start your revolution? I can’t bear to think about it – let’s change the goddam subject. These other people you’ve been ranting about are something else again. This Professor Trupper. And those other two goons you were telling me about last night – Manlius, and the other one. I’ve had them by the dozens, and so has everybody else, and I agree they’re not harmless. They’re lethal as hell, as a matter of fact. God almighty. They make everything they touch turn academic and useless. Or – worse – cultish. To my mind, they’re mostly to blame for the mob of ignorant oafs with diplomas that are turned loose on the country every June… But what I don’t like – and what I don’t think either Seymour or Buddy would like, either, as a matter of fact – is the way you talk about all these people. I mean you don’t just despise what they represent – you despise them. It’s too damn personal, Franny. I mean it. You get a real little homicidal glint in your eye when you talk about this Trupper, for instance. All this business about his going to the men’s room to muss his hair before he comes in to class. All that. He probably does – it goes with everything else you’ve told me about him. I’m not saying it doesn’t. But it’s none of your business, buddy, what he does with his hair…. If you’re going to go to war against the System, just do your shotting like a nice, intelligent girl – because the enemy’s there, and not because you don’t like his hairdo or his goddam necktie.”

Links:
Franny and Zooey @ Wikipedia
Review by John Updike (1961)

There’s Hope, Just Not Here: The Elementary Particles (Atomised) by Michel Houellebecq

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 05:53:00 +0000

I would like to tell you a story about us, and I would like to end it with the beginning of another story, a story not about us. The end is not like the story itself, it’s not its closure, it’s not its end, it more like reflection about the future. An utopic reflection. However, it’s only the end which is utopic, the story itself is far from such. It’s about two brothers, twins, and different, but as twins are, the are linked and more similar then it seems. The story has evreything in it: death, sex, love, hate. It’s classic story about our classic times. Our times are classic, but different. They are new, but same as old. The end, however, is new, totally new. It’s about an utopia. About how humanity reached a point where it was so advanced that it could prepare its heir, when we have the technological abilities to create a new race of humans (or maybe something different). A point in our evolution in which we had the mental ability to create something better, to notice our own faults and to correct them. A point in which we have the ability to humbly leave the stage and make way for a something new and better. A point in which something better is really a possiblity. Of course, it’s an utopia, and one can argue about its plausiblity. But this is the utopian end I promise you, an utopian end to a book filled with despair, a book so much about you and me. However, have no doubt, the end is utopian but not for us, as we are not a part of it. Despair, my friend, but do enjoy this masterpiece.
Digging in my mind about this book made me dig about it in the external realm as well. And then I got really excited: a German movie was made following the book. Movies based on books are usually a disappointment, but this one might still prove to be something special, as it has Fanka Potente (the one from Run Lola Run) in one of the lead roles.
India 2006:
Yesterday I met Bruno (one of the characters in the book). Really. I met a french guy named Bruno. He was a bit different from the Bruno in the book, but same issues and same problems. He has been traveling for the last 10 years. No home to get back to, he doesn’t know what’s next. Waiting for something to happen, he is 49 and tired, but nothing will happen (say the ever skeptic me). It was funny to talk to him, I wonder where he will lead himself next.
Links:
Wikipedia record
Movie IMDB entry
Trailer in German

Vina Divina: The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:43:32 +0000

You know what, Vina? I hate you, and I love you. By hating you, I hate myself. By loving you, I hate myself. I am lost beneath your feet, they trampled me and sucked the life out of me. I would say that you are music, but I think you are much more – a manifestation of something else. I would even say that music is, in a way, a manifestation of something else. And this music, our sound and vibe, took on a new form over the last hundred years. A prophetic form and a creating one. It created in us all a sense of wonder that brings upon unbearable pain and allows us the utmost joy at the same time. We are in a state of constant emotional birth – painful and exhilarating.
Salman Rushdie is a not a novelist, he is a fabler – one that tales fables. His reality is close, it’s near by, but still it’s not ours. However, as it suffers from the same misfortunes that our reality suffers from, and as it exhibits the same magic (but slightly different), it’s a mirror, a purified reflection that comes to show us, in this book, what is pop music. Looking at today’s music I wonder if this is still relevant, or are we seeing something totally different today, but still can’t really tag it?
Links:
Wikipedia record
The first chapter of the book