{"id":7859,"date":"2010-01-28T23:22:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T03:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=7859"},"modified":"2010-01-28T23:22:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T03:22:50","slug":"salingers-concrete-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/01\/28\/salingers-concrete-universal\/","title":{"rendered":"Salinger\u2019s Concrete Universal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/01\/catcher-in-the-rye-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7860\" src=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/01\/catcher-in-the-rye-cover.jpg\" alt=\"catcher-in-the-rye-cover\" width=\"240\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/01\/catcher-in-the-rye-cover.jpg 300w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/01\/catcher-in-the-rye-cover-181x300.jpg 181w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Value judgments are a lie<br \/>\nFind the patterns that apply<br \/>\nSqueeze out Hamlet, let it dry<br \/>\nPresto! Catcher in the Rye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>[A poem that circulated among Victoria College students in the 1980s.]<\/p>\n<p>Salinger\u2019s book is my favourite, a work that explained to me my feelings of alienation while growing up as a C.B.C. (Canadian Born Chinese) split between two worlds, Chinese and Canadian, and wanting to be accepted by both. Perhaps that&#8217;s one reason why early on I loved English Literature so much: it was a way to be accepted by the ascendant class in Toronto during the 1970s. How much more Canadian can I be if I studied the literature?<\/p>\n<p>Too bad racists are philistines. But I digress.<\/p>\n<p>Frye helped explain my love of <em>The Catcher in the Rye<\/em>: The Concrete Universal. By being so specific, the novel speaks universally, beyond the limits of its time and place and setting.<\/p>\n<p>It is a work situated somewhere in phase 1 of Satire\/Comedy, which may also explain the universal power of <em>Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off.<\/em> Frye helped me see that the latter is the mythical opposite of <em>Catcher<\/em>, a full blown Quest Romance\/phase 2 Satire. Both protagonists skip school. Both travel through a big city. Both have dates. Both have a kid sister integral to the resolution. The difference is in the power of the main character when confronted by society. Ferris is one with his society. Holden is not, until the very end &#8212; the last line, in fact. Those who say <em>Catcher<\/em> is a depressing book are guilty of a substantial misreading. It has saved me on several occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you J.D. Salinger.\u00a0 And, as always, thank you Northrop Frye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Value judgments are a lie Find the patterns that apply Squeeze out Hamlet, let it dry Presto! Catcher in the Rye. [A poem that circulated among Victoria College students in the 1980s.] Salinger\u2019s book is my favourite, a work that explained to me my feelings of alienation while growing up as a C.B.C. (Canadian Born [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archetype","category-popular-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Salinger\u2019s Concrete Universal - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/01\/28\/salingers-concrete-universal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salinger\u2019s Concrete Universal - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Value judgments are a lie Find the patterns that apply Squeeze out Hamlet, let it dry Presto! 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