report conclusion怎么写 J D Salinger Influence On Modern Literature English Literature Essay

Selling Out

Salinger also helped to introduce the modern concept of “selling out”. To Salinger, selling out, or abusing a talent to receive money is one of the worst sins an artist can commit. Holden’s brother D.B. is a gifted writer who, after years without success writing short stories, turned to Hollywood to make his fortune. A passionate opponent of movies (again for their phoniness), Holden is quick to describe his brother as a “prostitute” (Page 2).

Punk culture, the teenage anti-establishment movement, was founded on the ideologies of Salinger. Just as Salinger’s characters were despised by phonies, Punk was created in response to a distaste of what the “fake” mainstream was producing. Iggy Pop, known as the godfather of punk, is an obvious follower of Salinger’s literature. In an interview, Iggy Pop, was asked what his opinion was on encores and how certain bands can be celebrated to the point of idolization. Iggy Pop responded, “You’ve seen so many trashy, fake-y, phony, hokey acts get encores. You know, I don’t want an encore, don’t give me an encore” (Gzowski). Earlier in the interview, Iggy also said, “I would enjoy sometime if everyone would just lay down on the floor, not applaud or pay any attention to me. Do you know what I mean?” (Gzowski). Not only is this a rejection to the attention seeking rock stars of his day, but it was almost like Holden Caulfield was sitting next to Iggy telling him what to say, considering Holden’s view on attention in Chapter 7: “Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.” (Page 52).

Now deemed a classic, The Catcher in the Rye, was also highly regarded when it was first published in 1951. Ben Welter wrote one of the first reviews of the novel and claimed “Month in, month out, novels don’t come much better.” However J. D. Salinger never wrote to please the critics. He wrote “just for [himself] and [his] own pleasure,” (Fosburgh). That is why, even though Salinger became a recluse after the success of The Catcher in the Rye, he “had been apparently been writing about [the fictional family the Glasses] nonstop,” (McGrath). The characteristic that Salinger is self-motivated is a quality found in many counterculture artists today, including Iggy Pop. When Gzowski mentioned to Iggy in their interview, that Iggy had developed a large international following, Iggy responded: “Are you happy to be popular? Do you get a big kick out of that? I suppose you’re popular. Well, you know, I don’t get a big kick out of it, really. I would just, I would just, uh, I’ve worked very hard for a very long time, and to try to make something that is beautiful enough so that I can enjoy it…” (Gzowski).